Steamed Male Medium, (5.5"-6") Dozen

Show you Crab Picking Skills! Lined up and accompanied with bay spices, hot butter, and ramekins of apple vinegar with JO Spice, blue crabs require two essentials: a robust appetite and crab picking skills that leaves no morsel unpicked. Extracting the robust, salty-sweet lump meat from the main crab cavities, jumbo from the back-swimming leg location, and claw from the front pincers requires exact skills. Fumbling with seafood forks or mallets can either mutilate a beautiful chunk or mash shells within the meat which detracts from the crab feasting enjoyment. The true crab fan prepares for a heaping load of crabs from start to hot butter dipping finish. First, set the stage. Cover the picnic table with sturdy disposable tablecloth, better known as crab paper or butcher paper. Wooden mallets, small butter knives, seafood forks, along with bowls filled with hot water and ready rolls of paper towels will serve as a successful start to the pick-a-thon. Tap, crack, and peel. Take your steps to locate the meat. First, twist off all the legs and claws. Watch the back-swimming legs as you remove them with a twist. You may achieve a jumbo crab chunk extraction with a large piece of meat ripping from the crab cavity. If this benefit doesn’t happen, don’t worry. You’ll reach this meat later with a seafood fork. Second, turn the crab upside down to expose the bottom apron and remove the tab from the male that looks like the Washington Monument, and Washington Capitol on the female crab. With the removed tab, you can easily place your finger in the hole to remove the top shell, known as the carapace. Save this ornamental shell to bowl crab imperial for another day. Then scrape off the “dead man’s fingers”, the gruesome name for the gills. That’s why you scrape them away. They are inedible. The yellow mustard, tomalley, or crab fat remains as a preference. Some crab lovers claim it adds a bit of tangy sweetness to the buttery crab meat. Crack the crab body in half and begin the official picking. Take the Challenge! Gently squeeze the shell area where you do the first picking. Insert your knife into the crab half and pry out the mounds of meat. Tap the claws with your wooden mallet and form a fissure in the shell and then peel it off. Like the back-swimming legs, you may have the benefit of a huge piece pulling from the claw. Carefully pry the pincers apart and check to see if the huge claw chunk dislodges. If it doesn’t maneuver, place the trusty seafood fork into the crevice to get to the morsels. Many crab fans pick the meat into a bowl and then take breaks feasting on the treasure. The hot water filled bowls and paper towels will ensure a clean pick and take you into the pro status of a crab picking connoisseur!