The great crab feast adventure

I have written about crabs before, but they have always been the soft shelled variety.  My post, "The exquisite pleasure of fried soft shell crabs," shows that I have more than a passing acquaintance with blue crabs.

As was mentioned in that post, we did live in Maryland for a few years, so we certainly had the opportunity to sit around the table a few times with neighbors and attack a steaming pile of crabs waiting for us on newspaper.  Yet we had never tried doing crabs on our own

It did not take us long on the coast before we made an effort to catch crabs by dangling turkey necks on a string into the waters near our house.   The theory  is that the crabs  grab onto the turkey necks.  You then pull the crab up and slide a net under it just as it get to the top of the water.  Unfortunately either the tides or location conspired against us, and we struck out on catching our own crabs.  A week later, I did manage to catch a single crab while flounder fishing our dock.  Since one crab is pretty useless, I watched him scurry back into the water with the hope that perhaps this was a good sign.

Seeing that one crab just made me want crabs more so I visited Clyde Phillips Seafood between the bridges in Swansboro.  Their sign indicating live crabs was a hopeful omen.  We actually got to go back into the cooler to examine their stock of crabs.  We made arrangements to come back the next day and get some crabs for our feast.

We headed over early the next day and used some tongs to pick some male crabs which were weighed and paid for before  being stuck back into the cooler for our return later in the day.

We then set off looking for crab mallets or crackers, Old Bay Seasoning, and coarse sea salt.  We had already snared a pot suitable for crab steaming on the way to the seafood market.  We had zero luck finding crab mallets or crackers, but we found everything else at the local Lowe's grocery store.

Later in the day after picking up an appropriate amount of beer at the local convenience store, we headed off to retrieve the crabs.  As soon as we got them home, they were thrown into the sink, where each one was examined to confirm that it was still alive.

Next they were placed into the steamer which already had beer and water turning into steam.  Next a good dose of Old Bay Seasoning and some coarse sea salt was put on the crabs.  The top was put on the steamers and the timer was set for twenty minutes.

After some battles with our propane stove which needs some adjustment, the crabs were pronounced done.  The ladies had earlier covered the kitchen table in plastic garbage bags with a layer of newspaper on tops.

We had a great feast, finding plenty of those delicious morsels that keep you picking until all the tasty sea creatures are gone. When we were done, it was all rolled up put in a garbage bag.

The only regret is that we eventually ran out of crabs and that it will be a while before we can go on a search for even larger crabs for another feast.