Many people have never had Atlantic Blue Claw crabs, or can only get them at a restaurant. Most people usually think of Alaskan King crab legs when they hear the word “crab”. While King crab is excellent, it is expensive due to the how they are caught and sometimes they are too salty for my taste. Do not confuse King crab with Snow crab… Snow is that awful stuff you get at the Chinese buffet.

Atlantic Blue Claw crab is much closer to its west coast cousin the Dungeness crab. Blue Claws have clean white and sweet meat. The claws themselves have a darker meat which is just a tad saltier, but just as sweet. Getting the meat out of a Blue Claw is work. There are tricks to make it easier, but I don’t know if I can articulate the methods without pictures or video. Because it is work, many people just can’t be bothered; to those I say, “go buy yourself a bag of potato chips for a quick fix snack.” The point isn’t to eat ‘til you’re full, which is whole point of my previous entry; it’s a social thing.

Blue Claws are also a healthy, protein rich, low fat, snack. Forget a dipper of butter; you don’t need it. All you need is the crab and beer. What kind of beer? I recommend your favorite.

There are many ways to prepare crab in order to add as much other flavors as you like whether you boil or steam them. As far as I know, my Grandpa’s recipe is no big secret. As a matter of fact, it’s not much of a recipe at all because it is more like throwing in a bunch of ingredients in your own proportions. I do have a list of ingredients and instructions which you can follow as closely as you want.

Grandpa’s Crab Boil
Fill a 5 gallon pot halfway with water and bring to a boil with the following ingredients, portions can vary:

• Apple Cider Vinegar, about a cup, more or less
• A bottle of beer, or more, if can part with it
• Chopped Onion, about 3 medium yellow is good
• Some Bay Leaves
• Mustard Powder, about a tablespoon
• Cloves, a bunch
• Old Bay, a tablespoon or three
• Cayenne pepper, a teaspoon
• Crushed red pepper, a bunch od shakes
• Whole Pepper Corns
• Maybe some garlic cloves
• Salt, about 3 tablespoons
• Oh yeah, and add the crabs only after it is at a rolling boil. Two dozen easily fit in this pot.

Now if you want to steam your crabs, you can still make the liquid portion with beer and vinegar and then put some of the powdered seasons directly onto the crabs. When steaming, the seasonings don’t penetrate into the crab, but they do stick to the shells and when you are eating them and licking your fingers, you are sure to get a mix of flavors. If you like them spicy, go with the steam method; but if you don’t want the crab sweetness and goodness hidden, go with the boil.

Whether you boil or steam crabs, do so for about 10-15 minutes. To tell if they are done, they should turn bright red and the legs should be easy to pull off.

Wondering where you get them? Hang in there for the final blog entry!

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