It's a Chesapeake Thang

[racer2c]

My wife splurged and got me my all time favorite summer time food for fathers day, a full bushel of Chesapeake Bay blue crabs, steamed and seasoned with Old Bay. 100% pure heaven. White gold baby. I was giddy in celebration of my favorite crustacean.
Now, I'm a pretend gourmet in the kitchen and we frequent very nice gourmet restaurants, but give me brown paper spread over the deck table, with a bushel of blue crabs in front of me (and of course some cold beer to wash them down with), family and some tunes, I am a happy, happy, happy camper.

Here in VA there are many crab vendors who sell crabs, usually out of a shack in their back yard. The prices these days are astronomical. When I was growing up here, pop would get a bushel of live blues for $20. Now a half bushel is $85 during a holiday. The gouging is deep.
The crab house restaurants are a fun time too. Many are built on stilts right over the water.

I do mine pure Maryland style with vinegar and Old Bay in two separate ramekins. First a dip in the vinegar and then a heavy coating of Old Bay and in the mouth. Mmmmm. Enough sodium for a year! You can actually feel your blood pressure rise!

I lived in downtown New Orleans in my early 20's and learned the art of my second favorite the crawfish boil. Mmmmm. That's a whole 'nother
thread!

If you're ever in the DC/Baltimore area, try the blue crabs.

[Warlock!]

:cry: :mad: [jealousy/envy] :mad: :cry:
(on both accounts... blues & crawdads)

I'll trade ya for a bushel of soy beans... :rolleyes:

Warlock!

[RacinM3]

Are those the same crabs as the ones they call "keyhole" crabs?

[racer2c]

Hmm, never heard "keyhole". But being a Virginian, maybe it's a Maryland term.

[racer2c]

Originally posted by Warlock!
:cry: :mad: [jealousy/envy] :mad: :cry:
(on both accounts... blues & crawdads)

I'll trade ya for a bushel of soy beans... :rolleyes:

Warlock!


What would I do with a bushel of soy beans? Um, don't answer that!

[RacinM3]

The keyhole crabs have this little spot on the soft side that looks almost like an old beer can pull tab, and works in much the same way....

[racer2c]

Yeah, the males or "Jimmy's" have a 'tab' that some say resembles the Washington monument. The females have a tab that looks like the Capitol. You only buy males though so that the little ladies can keep doing what they do.

[Don Quixote]

I am with you 100 percent on this one. This past spring break the Quixote family (all 7 of us) went to Wash DC for an educational vacation. One of the days we drove out to St Michaels and had a huge lunch of blue crabs and steamed clams and arsters. The flavors still linger! Even the finicky eaters in the group ate until they could barely get up from the table. :thumbup:

[oddlycalm]

Originally posted by racer2c
vinegar and Old Bay

Sounds great, but what is Old Bay? As a dungeness crab fan, and having had a number of crab feeds while on trips to Baltimore over the years, is it possible that I have managed to overlook a key ingrediant in the process...?

BTW, I was at Mystic, CT a few years back to visit Mystic Pizza (of movie fame), and picked up the 'Mystic Fisherman's Wives Cookbook' in order to donate to the Lost Fisherman's fund. One year when we had a lot of crab, and I'd exhausted all of our favorite recipes, I tried the 'Crap Soufflé' from said book. Simply great.

oc

[Turn7]

Old bay is a seasoning that is popular in the mid-atlantic coast and south.

http://www.marylanddelivered.com/images/oldbaycans.jpg


When you are ready for a little more spice in your life, try this...

http://www.purecajun.com/graphics/madustl.jpg

[racer2c]

Old Bay seasoning. A mixture of spices and salt. Allot of salt. :-)

It's a tradition when eating Chesapeake blue crabs. I believe you can get it nation wide now. Personally, and this may be just because of my taste, and my association between Old Bay seasoning and blue crabs ,but I prefer the good old drawn butter with King Crab legs, dungeness crab legs, Snow crab legs, Stone crab claws and Lobster. Old Bay just doesn't seem to suit those guys very well, it's a blue crab thing. But again, that might just be me.

[Napoleon]

Originally posted by oddlycalm
Sounds great, but what is Old Bay?

Thought everyone knew what that was. After reading some other post above I guess its a regional thing.

[Foxman]

Funny.. I live in Maryland, I don't eat crabs, 'Lock, you can have mine.. The prices are through the roof though, I"m not sure whether that's due to a shortage in the bay or just gouging on the part of the crabbers...

Fox