Blue Crabs live

chingador

chingador

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Was meaning to do this for the shellfish throwdown but things got in the way. Ranch 99 Asian market in Houston normally has live blue crabs. Picked out 8 large, and most importantly alive blue crabs. I will clean the crabs once they have chilled down on ice for an hour or so. That slows them down and lowers the chances of getting pinched. I will boil the claws and grill the bodies basting with lemon garlic butter. Good stuff
 

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I have never tried to eat blue crabs, but even still crawling, that is making me hungry...and I just ate lunch!
 
Blue crabs cleaners and seasoned with Durkees Zestful seasoning. For background here is some info on Texas BBQ crabs. Note, BBQ crabs came from Sartins which used to be in Sabine Pass and moved to Beaumont but is now defunct. BBQ crabs are deep fried, not grilled or smoked. They were coated heavily with a strong seasoning and fried. The seasoning was secret but a few copycats exist from Fiesta and Durkee. If you cannot find either, Fiesta chicken rub gets the job done.

https://www.houstonpress.com/restaurants/barbecued-crabs-the-secret-recipe-6433692


Claws boiled and chilling in the beer fridge. Had to taste one though. A little heavy on the salt. Didn't pay attention that the powdered crab boil had salt as first ingredient. No worries. Still really good. Have a bottle of Ferrari Carano afume Blanc chilling as we speak
 

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Very true shadow. I made sure every crab I picked was alive and pissed off. Dead crabs are no good. I put them on top of bagged ice in a cooler with the drain plug open so the epwater will drain off. The cold ice stuns the crabs and makes the easy to manage. But they are still alive.

To be honest, I was a little Leary about buying live crabs at the Asian market. I was careful to pick lively crabs but there were some dead ones in the bin. Would much rather take the 2 hour roadie to Port Bolivar and visit Joe Comeaux but that wasn't in the cards
 
chingador said:
Very true shadow. I made sure every crab I picked was alive and pissed off. Dead crabs are no good. I put them on top of bagged ice in a cooler with the drain plug open so the epwater will drain off. The cold ice stuns the crabs and makes the easy to manage. But they are still alive.

To be honest, I was a little Leary about buying live crabs at the Asian market. I was careful to pick lively crabs but there were some dead ones in the bin. Would much rather take the 2 hour roadie to Port Bolivar and visit Joe Comeaux but that wasn't in the cards
Click to expand...

You did them great. As long as they are alive they are fine. I live near the ocean and made a lot of crabs over the years. We got to the point where we would only make crabs on trash night to keep the garbage can from stinking. Now we are lazy and eat them cleaned and cooked at a local crab shack. We let them deal with the mess.

 
Yeah the garbage is problematic. I put the back shells and guts in a large rectangular to go plastic container. It is in the freezer waiting for garbage day. Most times I eat blu crabs we are at the beach. We just walk out on the beach with a shovel and bury the shells and guts a foot or two beneath the sand. Back to nature
 
My fav crab. Love those things. After they are steamed I like to take a nice fresh tomato wedge and rub it on the seasoning on the shell. Sooooo good
 
Okay, claws are devoured. Bodies hit the pit with a basting sauce of salted butter, green onions, garlic, lemon juice, Worcestershire and tiger sauce. D-plates down, temp at 325. Peacan smoke keeping things tasty.
 

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I have learned more about crabs in this thread than I knew before. Thanks for the education and for making me hungry. Nice job!!
 
Ya'll down in Texas are flipping nuts. I'd have never thought about that cept on a peeler. Gotta try it.!!! :clap2:
 
chingador said:
A much better article on the history of Sartins BBQ crabs and the secret seasoning

https://www.bluecrab.info/bbqcrabs.html
Click to expand...


Man, don’t get me started on Sartin’s. Wife and I drove from Galveston to Nederland last year before we moved to Atlanta. Was trying to do all the stuff on our list before we leave the state. We arrive there after a 2 hour drive and they were out of their BBQ crabs! Been out a couple days, they said. Pretty much drove two hours for some average fried shrimp. And I felt pretty bad because I talked it up to my wife to make the trip.

This is surely something you post on their FB page. But they also closed down the following weekend. Go figure.

Okay, back on topic. I like to char grill my blue crabs like the recipe for Drago’s char grilled oysters. Minus all the cheese.
 
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