Steamed Blue Crabs

The blue crab season ended November 21 (the day I got married!), and before it ended, we purchased a bushel and steamed them Tangier Island style. When someone orders steamed blue crabs from a restaurant, they are steamed with the backs on and covered in Old Bay seasoning. When cooking crabs what I call Tangier Island style, the guts are cleaned out prior to steaming. Restaurants usually don't clean the crabs prior to steaming because it is time consuming.  To clean out the guts, the back is taken off first:

A bushel of crabs--best cleaned outside.

A close-up--notice the back on. These are still alive, and you have to work around their claws to avoid being pinched to get the back off while cleaning.

Once the back is removed, the eyes are cut off, and the lungs are removed. The cleaning process probably sounds really disgusting, but the meat tastes so much better with all of the guts and stuff removed prior to steaming.

The traditional Tangier Island way of steaming the crabs includes layering the crabs with onions and sprinkling them with Old Bay. Once the crabs are layered with onions, rendered fatback grease is poured over the top along with a cup of water (just enough to fill the first inch of the pot), and the strips of fatback are also laid on top. A healthier option is to steam the crabs with vinegar and water or beer and water.

We needed three pots to steam our bushel.

Set the table by covering it with newspaper and having rolls of paper towels available. Bowls are laid out for the muddy gravy. Saltines are also a necessary for consuming the crabs and sopping up the gravy.

Once the crabs are steamed, you pick the meat out of the body. On Tangier Island, the liquid in the pot is called muddy gravy and is poured into bowls. Once the meat is picked, it can be placed in a bowl to soak up the gravy. It can then be eaten by itself or eaten on top of a saltine. The crab meat is also excellent soaked in regular white vinegar.

Best enjoyed with a Pepsi.

Crabs and onions in the pot ready to be eaten.

Crabs are best steamed outside, especially if you cook them with fatback. The fatback smell lingers for quite awhile after they are cooked. Since it was November, it was a bit chilly to cook ours outside. We have an outdoor burner, and received a really big steam pot as an early Christmas gift. I can't wait until crabs are available in the spring. In the meantime, we have oysters to look forward to!