Category: Steamed Crabs

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A Typical Crab House Menu

…includes related seafood items, cold beer or other beverages, crab cakes, fries and a burger or two…

Other than steamed crabs – of course – we also like good fresh made crab cakes (or crabcakes) and some steamed shrimp and some corn on the cob. We like the steamed shrimp with steamed onions all done in Old Bay (or similar) seasoning. All of this needs to be washed down by an ice cold beer or a fountain coke in a tall cup filled with ice.

Steamed Crab Claw - Maryland Cream of Crab Soup

Here are some “typical” menu items that seem popular in various crab house establishments.

The Steamed Crabs, of course.

  • Medium, Large, Extra Large and Jumbo
    (or variations of these sizes)
  • By the Dozen or 1/2 Dozen
    (or possible individual sales)
  • Steamed crabs are always “market priced.” Please note that the prices can change without notice.

Crab Cakes

Crab Cake with Fork
Lump Crab Meat in a Crabcake
  • Broiled or Fried
  • Always get the broiled.

Crab Soup

  • Maryland Crab – tomato/vegetable based
  • Cream of Crab
  • Crab Bisque

More Seafood

  • Lobster and/or Lobster Tails
  • Steamed Shrimp – always ask if you can get these with onions
  • Seafood Platter or Sampler
  • Scallops
  • Hand Breaded Calamari
  • Snow/King Crab Legs
  • Steamed Clams
  • Steamed Mussels
Maryland Crab Soup
Bowl of Maryland Crab Soup

Sides

  • Fries – Straight Cut and/or Curly
  • Corn on the cob
  • Pizza – usually personal size and pre-made – crab houses are not pizzerias

Alternatives

  • Hamburger and/or Cheeseburger
  • Chicken Fingers
  • Grilled Cheese Sandwich
  • Tuna Salad

Drinks

  • Sodas
  • Iced Tea
  • Draft Beer
  • Bottled Beer
  • Wine (at some crab houses)
  • Mixed Drinks (at some crab houses)

Many of the seafood items – lobster, shrimp, crabs, scallops and even clams and mussels – are available for “mail order” home delivery. Places like Lobster Anywhere or The Crab Place (Link: www.CrabPlace.com) can have fresh, delicious seafood products delivered directly to your door.

Baltimore Summer means Steamed Crabs and Cold Beer
Baltimore Summer means Steamed Crabs and Cold Beer and Corn on the Cob

For the non-seafood lover (who may be) in the group, there are usually an assortment of “other” foods. These usually include french fries and onion rings to go with the seafood. You will also find a hamburger or cheeseburger and maybe even a steak sub.

What else comes out of the crab steamers? All sorts of good eats – for one example – steamed shrimp…and more…of course…

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Crab Sex

How to tell the boy crabs from the girl crabs…

STEAMING and EATING CRABS: Live and Steamed Crabs are usually “priced” according to their sex and their size. The large males bring the highest prices because they (usually) contain a larger quantity of crab meat. Females are usually priced lower than males and are not (usually) as readily available as are the males.

Female Crabs: A mature (adult) female blue crab, known as a “Sook,” is identified with an inverted “U” or bell-shaped apron and red-tipped claws. The red tips, of course, blend in with the overall color of the crab once it has been cooked, or steamed.

More simply, the bottom of a female crab has a shape like the U.S. Capitol building.

Male Crabs: A male blue crab, known as a “Jimmy,” has a long, narrow, inverted “T” shaped apron and blue-tipped claws. Of course the color of the claw tips on steamed crabs are not the same as on live crabs.

More simply, the bottom of a male crab has a shape like the Washington Monument.

More “Crab Facts”

Crab Fact #1
Crab Fact #3
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Recipe: Lobster Crackerjacks

A “different” kind of treat…

While many of our recipes are creations that have been submitted by family, friends, and fans, and even though our recipes tend to revolve around seafood dishes that are common to the Baltimore, Maryland area, we couldn’t help but include Lobster Crackerjacks as a dessert dish in our collection of seafood recipes. Yes, you read that right, Lobster Crackerjacks.

If you are thinking to yourself that when you hear Crackerjacks your mind wanders back to times when life was simpler and you were just a kid eating a box of traditional Crackerjacks – caramel popcorn with peanuts. So, they must mean a popcorn snack/dessert, but they said lobster, so they can’t mean something with popcorn. Or can they?

Check out this video clip from the British cooking reality show that is a competition for amateur chefs and you will see just that – Lobster with popcorn, coconut, and caramel!

Master Chef finalist, Johnny B, brought this interesting seafood dessert/snack concoction to our attention and it definitely caught the attention of the three judges, Gordon Ramsey, Joe Bastianich, and Graham Elliot, all of whom are restaurateurs and/or professional chefs. As you can imagine, the judges had the same reaction that you probably had – shock, disgust, intrigue, disbelief. But, the judges have to give everyone a fair chance so they had to taste it.

Johnny B claims that his Lobster Crackerjacks is a favorite dish among his friends and family that it is requested at every party, dinner, or gathering that he throws or attends. If you want to give it a shot and make this interesting, and supposedly delicious, seafood dessert/snack dish, here’s how.

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1 bag microwave popcorn
  • 6 lobster legs
  • Caramel –homemade (as seen on the show) or store bought Smucker’s caramel sauce.
  • Shaved coconut

DIRECTIONS:

  1. Johnny B starts out by using a beer bottle to roll the lobster meat out of the lobster legs.
  2. He then adds the lobster to a bowl that already has popped popcorn in it.
  3. Then Johnny pours his homemade caramel over the lobster and popcorn.
  4. Finally, he gently mixes the popcorn, lobster, and caramel so it is all well coated then spoons it into the martini glasses that he serves it in and sprinkles a small handful of coconut on top.

–> Homemade Caramel:

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1 ½ cups sugar
  • 1/3 cup water
  • 1 ¼ cup heavy whipping cream
  • 1.2 tsp pure vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:

  1. Using a sauce pan, mix the water and sugar together then cover it and let it cook on low heat until the sugar dissolves. This should take between 5 and 10 minutes.
  2. Without stirring, take the lid off and simply increase to medium heat.
  3. Let the sugar water boil until it is a warm brown (caramel) color – this should take about 6 minutes. While the color is turning, you will want stir the mixture by swirling the pan. Do not use a spoon. Be very careful not to boil it for too long as caramel can very easily go from sweet to being burned.
  4. Turn the heat off and add the vanilla and cream slowly.
  5. Turn the hear back on low and simmer. At this point you will want to stir the caramel constantly as you see Johnny B doing in the Master Chef Lobster Crackerjacks video clip.

After Johnny added the finishing touch or a sprinkling of shaved coconut to his Caramel Crackerjacks, each judge approached the table one at a time and each one of them looked more serious and skeptical of the dish than the last (they also weren’t shy about voicing their skepticism). The judges all tasted Johnny B’s Lobster Crackerjacks with a straight face but after the commercial break they all expressed how shockingly good it was! They were quite impressed!

Don’t like lobster or one of the other ingredients in the Lobster Crackerjacks? Did you try this recipe and love it so much you want to see what else you can do to mix it up a little? Try one of these variations that we came up with:

VARIATIONS:

  • Try crab meat or shrimp instead of lobster.
  • Replace the caramel with dark chocolate and sprinkle with sea salt instead of coconut.
  • Use dark chocolate in addition to the caramel and sprinkle with sea salt. If you do this, be sure to only use half of the caramel and use an equal amount of dark chocolate.