Or are you one of the one-percenters who pay the $40 per pound for picked crab?

I cannot pick crab to save my life.  I fool with it for an hour and end up with my hands mangled, every fingernail broken, pieces of crab leg all over.  I ran into a guy once who had worked at Pacific Choice or Lazio’s  or somewhere and he claimed  that if you had the right wrist action and knew what you were doing you could sort of shake the crab out of the shell.  I’m just passing this on; I have no idea if it’s true.

At these prices, you try to stretch things.  I have a recipe for crab spread that is good for us peasants.  This was not created for dungeness but works just fine.  It’s from the late lamented Trawler Restaurant  on Shem Creek in Charleston. Here it is:

COMBINE:  One cup of that precious crabmeat with  one 8-oz package  of cream cheese, softened, 1/2 cup mayo, 4 T (start with 2) worcestershire sauce, 2 T horseradish (start with one), 2 T melted butter, 1/2 tsp garlic salt. Seriously good.

Okay, you twisted my arm so here’s another.  This is from Joe’s Stone Crabs and is a dipping sauce that- I think-  goes better with shrimp than with crab.  I keep it around all the time now. You can thank me later.

COMBINE;  One cup mayo, 4 T half&half, 4 tsp dry mustard, 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce, 1 tsp A-1, salt and pepper.

I have a recipe for  mac’n’cheese with crab  that also stretches a cup of crabmeat to feed four.  When it comes to crab, there is no shame. Eat the whole thing yourself!  Support our local crabbers! And if you hear of anyone giving crab-picking lessons, let me know.

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