Your Favorite Crab?

[FireMan]

Before we get carried away with things here, ya’ll know this is just another opportunity to have another poll rigged!

[Sgt Tyree]

FireMan : What poll was rigged?

[Sgt Tyree]

Willy ; Pic of the Can Cooker Jr. from a recent trip out west to the high country (Wyoming, not Colorado). There's 5 pounds of crab legs in there. There are 3 sizes but this one travels well. Plus you just cannot beat one of those single burner butane stoves when on the road.

[lonnie mac]

I even paid Husky a hundred bucks to put me at the top of the monthly drawing. NOTHING!! Not even a thank you!

[FireMan]

See!!!!!

[Sgt Tyree]

FireMan : For me to comment just "ain't my department".

[johnec00]

Had to go with Blues. Mom and Dad retired to a place on the Crystal River (West Florida). We threw the trap off the end of their dock and a few days later had a mess of fresh Blues. Mom could shuck the things so fast it'd make your head ache. I never mastered the art though.

[Hulagn1971]

I went with blue, for the sole reason my favorite are soft shells.

[johnmcq4]

I had to vote for Snow since that was what I woke up to after a 3rd shift radio watch on a light house in Alaska. A crab boat blessed us with enough crab legs to fill the kitchen sink. My fellow light house keepers thought it would be a good idea to place a whole live Snow crab on my chest as I was sleeping. Thier laughter woke me up enough to see what was going on. I gave them a good cartoon like head shake with sound affects and jumped out of bed. That was some awesome boiled crab. It is on my list to grill some. I had some grilled at my daughters wedding rehearsal dinner compliments of her father in law. I did grill some left over legs the next day for lunch. Long over due to enjoy it again.
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[icyhawk]

I live on the west coast, so haven't had the opportunity to try any of the east coast or gulf varieties. Of the pacific crab, king crab are the money species, because of their ease of use, and deadliest catch. But The dungies have the best flavor by far IMHO. Lot's of work, though. I'll catch 'em, clean 'em, and cook 'em, but you gotta pick 'em.

[jacmac422]

flavor wise Dungeness wins hands down. Alaskan is good for the amount of meet you get but expensive and not easy to catch on your own. Blues are great as softshell but otherwise dont hold a candle to dungeness..

[Potkettleblack]

I don't make much crab (maybe this summer), but I have a really fond memory of finishing a project when I worked in DC, and they took the lot of us up to Annapolis for a crab feast. Was really my first exposure to crabs, and had a lot of fun learning to pick the meat out of them, pounding with mallets, and making a mess.

sometimes, it's the quality of the experience as much as the quality of the food.

Fun fact about Stone crabs. They don't kill the crabs to harvest the claws. The crabs regrow the claws.
"Once a stone crab loses a claw or other appendage it takes several molts to fully regenerate the lost appendage or claw (Figure 8). Each time a crab molts it has the ability to regenerate the lost appendage. Regeneration in adult crabs takes one year due to the seasonal molting of adult females in fall and adult males in winter. The regenerated claws start out smaller than the original and will continue to grow through subsequent molts. After three molts (three years in adult crabs) a claw can regain 95 percent of its original size. In juvenile stone crabs regeneration of lost appendages can be more rapid than adults. Juvenile crabs molt two or more times per year giving juveniles the ability to regenerate an appendage in a few months."

Much more sustainable when harvested responsibly.

We have a Joe's here in Chicago, that flies the meat in from Florida, and might be worth checking out. I dunno that I'd trust myself to cook them without the sous-vider, if I could get my hands on the meat.

[Willy]

Agree 100% on the "quality of the experience" POV.

We tried a Joe's a couple of years ago and were quite disappointed--pretty much a more expensive Red Lobster.

[Troutman]

Stones are worth seeking out, trust me on that PKB

[FishTalesNC]

Blues hands down. As "kids" we’d get a bunch of us together and get a couple of bushels of XLs and a keg all for under $100 and head down to the river for the afternoon. When they put a moratorium on striper in MD & VA back in the mid 80s the striper came back hard and crushed the blue crab population. Prior to that the XLs were readily available and 7” across. Picking is still picking but there was more delicious meat for the effort with those, I wonder if that would’ve changed a vote or two. A little vinegar and old bay... yum.

[Huskee]

I've only ever had snow crab (not worth the work IMO) and king crab, so my opinion is limited by this fact. But, when I've had king crab I was in heaven and couldn't imagine a better thing to stuff in my face at that moment, so I vote king. But it appears I need to try Blue!

[Troutman]

I went with stones (as I reported previously) because I believe them to be the best. Having said that, I noticed a lot of you chose blues. I happen to own several crap traps and have been a avid blue crap harvester for many years. They are, as all have said excellent. Learn to identify the females and throw the males back, much better flavor and the roe is to die for.

[Huskee]

Great tips!

[skip4313]

I'm from near Baltimore, so picking blue crabs and drinking some cold beer is it, plus and you can't go wrong with MD crab cakes. I have a can of Old Bay on my dinner table in place of a salt shaker.

[Spinaker]

I love king crab. It is well....The King!

I have fond memories of eating Blue crab when I was a kid. we used to head down to Key Largo every August. We would dive and snorkel all day, eating fresh blue crab every day. Since I was from the north, I loved digging out the meat when I was a kid. It was a novelty for us.