This week, WTOP takes you from the bottom of the bay to the picnic table in our four-part series Claws and Effect: The murky future of the Chesapeake Bay blue crab. Listen on air and read it online. This is Part 4. Read Part 3 here.
All this week we’ve brought you the series “Claws and Effect,” a deep dive on the crabs of the Chesapeake Bay, taking a look at crabs and the crab industry in its present iteration and in the future. So many of us love crabs, especially when it’s being picked apart and put in our bellies.
But lots of people from the Chesapeake Bay region have very rigid views on the proper way to cook and eat them.
The ‘proper’ way to cook crabs
Crabs have to be steamed, usually with a can of cheap beer or apple cider vinegar in water, with lots of Old Bay seasoning tossed on top. And when you pick them, it has to be with your hands — and only your hands. Anything else would be sacrilegious and you’d look like a phony.
But what if there was more than one right way to eat crabs?
During a visit to Rob Schou’s house in St. Mary’s County, WTOP explored the most efficient ways to pick crabs, and learned that it’s OK to explore different ways to cook up local seafood.
During the day, Schou is a former teacher turned real estate agent who grew up in Annapolis, then moved to St. Mary’s County for college and never left. But he also runs a popular Instagram account, which boasts around 153,000 followers. That’s where he takes seafood, including crabs caught off his pier, and explores different ways to cook and eat it.
When we arrived around early dinner time, his two crab pots had some big, meaty crabs waiting for us inside the wire cage, plus a couple that weren’t quite big enough and had to be tossed back.
“I’ve tried a lot of different stuff, and I’ve even tried boiling crabs,” said Schou, who admitted he’s not keen on the seasoning used for a crab boil. His spice of choice isn’t Old Bay either, he and lots of crab houses in the region prefer J.O. Spice instead. Lately, his content has included a lot of grilled crab.
You guessed it — that means hard shells right on the grates.
Have you tried putting crabs on the grill?
“You take off the top shell (first),” he explained.
Pull it off and pull out the other inside parts of the crab that aren’t edible, such as the gills, and then spread butter and seasoning over the top of the now uncovered crab. You can also use oil, and Schou has even become a fan of gochujang, a spicy Korean spread made primarily with red chili peppers.
“Takes 10 minutes,” Schou said. “The crab’s already cleaned out, so you don’t have nearly as much mess when you’re picking and it just gives you a different flavor.”
- Read Part 1 of “Claws and Effect”: The murky future of the Chesapeake blue crab
- Read Part 2 of “Claws and Effect”: Who’s to blame for the blue crabs’ disappearance?
- Read Part 3 of “Claws and Effect”: What’s driving Chesapeake Bay watermen away?
“The beauty of a Maryland steam crab is the sweetness of the meat and the little bit of crab spice you get from picking it,” added Schou. “The difference with a grilled crab is you’re getting whatever kind of marinade you’re putting on there, whether it’s butter and J.O., or you’re putting something else on there. You’re getting that flavor as well, plus the sweetness too. And when you’re grilling them, it just is a little bit less mess.”
Schou grilled crabs three different ways when WTOP was there to visit. Most of them had butter and J.O. spread on top of the crabs, while one had a mezcal lime-flavored butter he usually uses on oysters, and one had a mix of barbecue sauce and butter. All of those cooked into the crabs while they were on the grill.
Schou had never tasted grilled crab covered in barbecue sauce before, and the first bite surprised him.
“It’s better than you would think,” said Schou. “Not even better than you think. It’s actually good. It has the same sweetness, but you get other flavors on.”
The butter and J.O. seasoned crabs were even better, while the mezcal lime butter wasn’t bad, per se, but it was clearly not as good as the barbecued crab.
When he posted that content on his own page, there were viewers in disbelief. He’s used to it. In fact, social media is where he gets lots of ideas from.
“Because of social media, so many people have ideas, and sometimes they’re kind of off the wall ideas, but it’s fun to try it and see if it’s a good thing,” he said. “I think I’m kind of open to any other way that people kind of suggest, within reason.”
One method that’s proven to be on the wrong side of the line, though he’s still tempted, is to not cook the crab at all.
“I don’t know if you’ve seen the Korean raw marinated crab. It was a big thing on social media about a year ago, and it’s basically marinating it in a soy sauce marinade, or a gochujang marinade, and then you eat it raw,” he explained. “And I can’t bring myself to do that yet. For some reason, I know there’s ways you can make it safer by freezing … just like they would do with sushi, but I haven’t done it yet.”
Testing the waters with a ‘new’ way to pick apart crabs
Another thing he does that might upset a lot of people when he picks apart his creatively cooked crabs is that he takes them apart with a knife.
“A lot of people get upset and say, ‘You’re not from Maryland if you don’t use your hands,’” he said.
And he used to be one of them, until his friend’s dad was taught how to use a knife by a woman who worked in one of the Chesapeake region’s picking houses and showed him how to do it. It isn’t so unusual to see other people whose roots in Maryland might go back several generations also use a special picking knife to crack open shells so meat slips right out.
“All you’re doing is kind of getting it started like that, with the tip of the knife down, and then turning it,” he demonstrated. His knife didn’t cut all the way through, it just cracked a claw open to make it easier to pull apart.
“It’s just taking the same kind of method that’s been used in picking houses in Maryland for probably 100 years, at least, and just making it so you can do it at home,” he added. “It doesn’t keep your hands any cleaner. You’re still getting dirty, but it just gets more meat out of there. And with the expensiveness … or how hard you have to work to even catch them, too, it’s worth getting every little ounce out of them. “
From there, he picks the crabs apart with what he calls “the lollipop method,” which leaves a few pieces of the lump meat on the end of a leg.
“You don’t want to just go in there and just kind of (beat it) with a hammer — like a lot of people do, — and just start crushing things and beating things and getting meat out,” he said. “So it’s taking the top shell off, cleaning it out, and then at the bottom, holding it upside down, rolling and pulling the leg at the same time and the meat will come out in those compartments. And then it’s easier to pick, rather than squeezing it out as you go.”
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