Stone crab season starts on 10/15 each year. I was a little over a week late acquiring the season’s first batch owing to existing engagements, but here’s a sample:
Are stone crabs a thing outside of Florida? I honestly do not know. These are from the Gulf of Mexico.
Interesting fact about stone crabs: You don’t have to kill the crab to harvest its claw. I’m sure it’s a bummer for the crab to lose the claw — I don’t want to minimize that! — but it grows back.
Also, the reason it’s called a “stone crab” is that the shell is hard as a rock. Some people use those metal nutcracker thingies to crack the shells. Some use a hammer.
I find both of those methods inadequate because the force applied tends to drive shell fragments into the tender and sweet claw meat.
My method is to grip the claw firmly and use the bowl of a large spoon to strike the shell sharply. With the right touch, that cracks the shell so you can peel it without shattering it and driving it into the meat.
Some folks dip stone crab meat into butter, and there’s nothing wrong with that. I prefer to make a sauce with mayo, Dijon, Worcestershire and a few drops of hot sauce.
So, that’s dinner sorted. Poor ol’ Bill can’t eat shellfish due to a hereditary tendency to gout, so the claws are mine. Alllll mine!
Open thread!
