How to Eat Crabs

[Larry Gude]

Got a question --

I've been eating crabs in Maryland for about 20 years. It's generally been my feeling that *real* Marylanders don't use mallets or knives to eat crabs. With experience, you already know how to do just about everything with your fingers. Snap off the shell, crack the legs, pull out the meat, break apart the chambers with your fingers. About the only thing you MIGHT need is the little fork, but I usually just use my teeth.

How about it? Am I wrong?

Couldn't be more wrong in my view. The best crab pickers I know, people who've had crab restaurants, life long Bay folks, water men, they ALL use knives and mallets. Extensively.

 

[Larry Gude]

Anyone who uses a mallet to eat crabs is an amateur, and is someone who should be mocked and scorned for their ridiculous behavior.

No one should be using a mallet to eat crabs. No one.

Poppycock.

After awhile, my palm gets a tad raw from whacking the back of my knife to open the claws. Light tap with a mallet and, viola.

 

[BadGirl]

Poppycock.

After awhile, my palm gets a tad raw from whacking the back of my knife to open the claws. Light tap with a mallet and, viola.

Maybe if you didn't have girlie hands , you'd be able to eat a damn crab without a stupid mallet.

 

[Toxick]

Got a question --

I've been eating crabs in Maryland for about 20 years. It's generally been my feeling that *real* Marylanders don't use mallets or knives to eat crabs. With experience, you already know how to do just about everything with your fingers. Snap off the shell, crack the legs, pull out the meat, break apart the chambers with your fingers. About the only thing you MIGHT need is the little fork, but I usually just use my teeth.

How about it? Am I wrong?

I use a knife. Primarily after I suck all the gooey sweet goodness from the middle, pick off the devil-fingers and break the little sucker in half, I use the knife to bisect that part because then if you twist the legs just right, the meat pops out of the chamber like a boss.



Whether I'm a *real* Marylander or not is up for debate, and out of the scope of my concern.

 

[Larry Gude]

Maybe if you didn't have girlie hands , you'd be able to eat a damn crab without a stupid mallet.

Maybe if you ate crabs in proper quantities, your hands would get sore, too.

 

[Larry Gude]

This is how a Marylander eats a claw.

 

[desertrat]

Just don't seat yourself next to a 5 year old with a hammer and a few claws.
Other than that there are no rules!

 

[Larry Gude]

Just don't seat yourself next to a 5 year old with a hammer and a few claws.
Other than that there are no rules!

That's true. However, there are a few basics that really make cracking crabs a WHOLE lot more enjoyable. Claws is one.

 

[RoseRed]

Clarke's Landing doesn't have the little knives.

 

[PsyOps]

Poppycock.

After awhile, my palm gets a tad raw from whacking the back of my knife to open the claws. Light tap with a mallet and, viola.

Pansy

 

[BadGirl]

Maybe if you ate crabs in proper quantities, your hands would get sore, too.

Trust me, you do NOT want to go there.


Do you REALLY want to have a crab eating contest?

I could so make you beg for mercy that you'd never want to eat another crab till the day you die. Then I'd feed your body to the crabs so they could feast on your dead carcass.

 

[BadGirl]

Pansy

 

[Katelin]

Crabs are great, but I just cannot see paying that much for them. I like the sitting around and picking while chatting and drinking a few brews, but that is about it. It is a social/family thing to me. Would not even consider it for an actual meal.

That is why there are lobsters....

 

[lovinmaryland]

The real question is - how many people suck the meat out of the 'legs' of the crabs, not the claws?

The real question is - how many people eat and enjoy the mustard

 

[desertrat]

That's true. However, there are a few basics that really make cracking crabs a WHOLE lot more enjoyable. Claws is one.

I save them for last. Well, I eat them last.

 

[drivingdaisy]

I just use a dinner knife, no mallet or other knife. If I need extra hitting power, I usually just flip the knife around and use the handle to hit the crab.

 

[Larry Gude]

Trust me, you do NOT want to go there.


Do you REALLY want to have a crab eating contest?

I could so make you beg for mercy that you'd never want to eat another crab till the day you die. Then I'd feed your body to the crabs so they could feast on your dead carcass.

That is not possible. The rest, I can see that.

 

[Larry Gude]

Pansy

I have to be able to hold a pic with that hand.

 

[cricketmd]

I just use a dinner knife, no mallet or other knife. If I need extra hitting power, I usually just flip the knife around and use the handle to hit the crab.

That still smashes it to some degree into the meat?

I've always used a nutcracker. I gently crack the shell with it. I'm surprised I dont see more people using one. I even thought about marketing it as a crab utensil. Maybe its a Virginia thing. :shrug:

 

[Larry Gude]

That still smashes it to some degree into the meat?

I've always used a nutcracker. I gently crack the shell with it. I'm surprised I dont see more people using one. I even thought about marketing it as a crab utensil. Maybe its a Virginia thing. :shrug:

It's not a clean, or simple, as the PROPER Maryland blue crab method.