I love crab. No. Seriously. I LOOOOVE crab. I can eat my weight in crab. And I’m not exactly a delicate waif. Lobster? Meh. But crab is a whole different ballgame. So when we came out to the coast, and went to a crab boil at a friends. I think I ate 4? 5? I don’t know, at least everyone else was eating just as much – we had a dinner feeding AND a midnight one. Well, needless to say I was hooked. A way to have my own bounty of crab!
So after some googling on how to actually get the crab from wiggling in my basket to drenched in butter on my plate, the hubby and I took on our first crab boil. Which then turned into quite a few crab boils.
CRAB BOIL
Cooking the Crab
Place live crabs in freezer. I find this step the most important, because frankly I’m a girl and hate seeing things squirm when I know I’m about to plunge them into a boiling bath and eat them. Freezing them makes them quiet.
In a giant pot add 5-6 beer, boiled kettles of water, old bay seasoning, 1 onion quartered, 2 bulbs of garlic (roughly smashed, mostly deskinned), approx 1 c of kosher salt, 2-3 cobs of corn (shucked and cut into thirds), some baby potatoes, and bring up to a roiling boil.
Add crabs. Cook for 7 minutes/lb. (Most good sized crab are about 2lbs so about 14 minutes)
Remove crabs from water and plunge into ice bath.
Remove corn and taters and set aside.
Cracking the Crab
The triangular piece on the belly is called the apron.
Lift up the apron and pop off
Place thumb in groove at back of crab
Grab shell with other hand and pull
Those gross looking things are the gills. Rip them off.
Break off the mouth pieces, this part can be a bit sharp
Take crab body and crack/break along middle
Rinse off body pieces, and (we prefer) cut each half in half
Pile on a plate with corn and taters, serve with a bucket of melted garlic butter! Share if you have to, but its not a requirement for full enjoyment.
This recipe also makes for the best tasting corn on the cob you’ll ever eat.
