Walking Sideways

An Insider's Guide to Crabs

By Amy Russell

Think you know everything there is to know about the most recognizable icon of the Chesapeake Bay region? We here at Taste of the Bay thought we did, too, but wait - there’s more.

 

One thing just about every Bay Country person knows is this: the delicious feast that is a bushel of hot, steamed Chesapeake Bay blue crabs. We know how to cook 'em, pick 'em, and how to gobble 'em up with a side of corn on the cob and a deep-fried batch of crispy hush puppies. But when we decided to dig a little deeper beneath the bushel, we discovered an interesting spread of lesser-known, but very intriguing, blue crab facts.

 

He vs. She

Most Marylanders know the best way to tell a male from a female crab is to check out the shape of their underbelly. From childhood we're taught that National Monument-shaped crab bellies belong to males, and Capitol Building dome-shape aprons are those of the lady crabs. But, did you know that red-tipped claws also belong to the female crabs? It's true!

 

In fact, we dug up a few other gender-oriented tidbits from local crabbers:

• Male crabs wait for the female crabs to begin molting to soft-shell status to begin the mating process. During that time, crabbing is a real challenge. “They're impossible to catch when they're shedding. When the females get soft, the males go off to mate,” says Glen Frost, who crabs from Snow Hill to Edgemere and Pasadena. “They aren't interested in eating during the time they're mating, so they won't go into the pots.”

  After mating, female crabs inch their way to the mouth of the river or creek, in search of saltier water in which to lay their eggs, while the male crabs hang tight upstream.

• Female crabs can carry millions of fertilized eggs at a time in their apron, but only a few of those eggs will evolve to crab maturity.

The Summertime Blues (Blue Crabs, that is…)

 

To Bay Country-ans, summertime and steamed crabs go hand in hand. But, local crabbers say that by limiting your crab consumption to these three summer months, you're really missing the boat. “They are much better in the fall,” says residential crabber Kate Torgerson, of Annapolis. “People think summer, and Memorial Day, and they think: “crabs.” But the best crabs are out in October. They're bigger then; they molt all summer and by September, they've stopped to prepare for the winter, so by October they're huge, and heavy.”

 

Commercial crabbers agree.

 

“That's correct,” says Frost. “They get nice and heavy before they go into the mud,” – the wintertime ritual of our beloved crustaceans.

 

Earlier is sometimes better, too. Crabs start to dig their way out of the mud in April, and while they taste a little differently because they've been packed in the sand all winter, they are good.

 

“When they first come out of the mud in April and early May, they are really big and full,” says Lauren Hardesty, of Pasadena. Though they are fewer and farther between, taking their time and waiting for the water to warm before they emerge from the mud, when they do come out – they’re a treat! “We had some of the best crabs we've ever had on Mother's Day this year,” Hardesty recalls.

A Full Moon, A Full Belly

 

Many crabbers subscribe to the belief that the shelling of a crab coincides with the cycles of the moon. The theory is, when the moon is full, the crabs will shed. So, just before a full moon the crabs are popping with meat, and just after, soft shells are more plentiful but hard shell crabs are light.

 

Frost agrees, but says there is some wiggle room in the theory.

 

“It's all contingent on the mood, but it's not exact,” he says. “Right now, further up the Bay the crabs are shelling with the full moon, and a little bit south, they are shelling with the new moon.”

 

Seasoned crabber Dave Walter is a little more skeptical. He says that the cycle of the moon is the same length of time as the cycle of a shelling crab, so while it's not a concrete way of predicting the quality of the crabs, if the two do happen to coincide at the beginning of the season, they will stay on the same cycle until the crabs go back into the mud. “I think that's mostly an old wives’ tale,” he says. “But a lot of crabbers do believe it, and most of the time, I think it's about right.”

 

“Oh, we totally believe that,” Hardesty says. But for judging the start of the season, she says the signs are actually all in the trees. Locust trees, to be exact. “When the locust trees start to bloom we know how the crabs are running. When they start to bloom, we know that environmentally things are right, the water is warming up. When they are in full bloom, we know we are one to two weeks away from the best crabs.”

 

A Spot Here, A Pinch There

 

It's easy to tell the quality of a crab when you encounter one, if you know what to look for, according to the local crabbing professionals.

 

“When you see crabs that are really dark, or have funky colors or stains, those are mud crabs,” says Hardesty. “And they are the heaviest.” Mostly associated with late-harvest crabs, the darker, almost black shells signal winter preparation and make for delicious, full crabs.

 

Another trick of the trade, says Walter, is to give the crab a little pinch.

 

“If you put your index finger under the crab's shell and your thumb on top by the point – about a half-inch in – and give it a little pinch, you can tell how full the crab is going to be. If you pinch and the shell squishes or moves, you know the crab just shed and it's not going to have a lot of meat. If it's hard to pinch, it means he's full.”

 

Don't Be So Crabby

What we were most surprised to learn during our research is that many crabs are cannibals.

 

“Oh yeah, if they get hungry enough, they'll eat each other,” says Frost. Sometimes, larger crabs will go after smaller crabs, but more often, a hard-shelled crab will take a stab at the soft-shelled variety.

 

So why don't they try to eat each other in the cooler?

 

“Well, in the cooler they're moving slowly so they can't really do anything,” Frost says. “Out of the water crabs are much more defensive.”

 

In the same defensive mode, crabs move backwards.

 

“They know better than to turn their back on you,” says Hardesty. “So when they've got their guard up they'll back into a corner to protect themselves.”

 

One Crab, Two Crab, Red Crab, Blue Crab

 

To sum it up, “Crabs are weird,” says Frost. Weird… and delicious.

 

Bay area residents look forward to few things more than they do Chesapeake Bay blue crabs. This season, when you're cracking open a steamed crab with friends in the heat of one of the Chesapeake's most beloved summer rituals, we encourage you to put these tips to the test. Then, visit us on Facebook and tell us: Did the cycles of the moon make you a better consumer? Were the darker crabs the heaviest? Did the pinch-trick work? Share your feedback with us – in between bushels.

 

And by all means, don't be afraid to test, test and retest each theory. It might take you a few weekends of research to get to the bottom of all this information. Who says research can't be delicious?

 

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