Thursday, February 1, 2018

Worth the Wait

Dungeness crab season usually starts here in mid-December.  By now we would have had two or three "crab feeds" here at the Reeder Homestead. This is a meal we look forward to all year, and we splurge to have it.

However this year the season was delayed because the crabs, a species that lives off the Pacific Coast, were not filling with meat. 

Fisheries managers use "meat-fill" tests to determine how well the Dungeness have rebounded from the late summer shedding of their shells in a process called molting. After the molt, the crabs fill with water as their shells harden and they grow new muscle. 

A two pound crab must yield a half pound of meat.

Finally the meat fill level was met. But then storms rolling in off the Pacific made the seas too rough for fishing. 

Now, finally the crabs are in! The supply is limited and the price, at $5.79 per pound today, is rather high, but that's as low as it will go this year, and our local Safeway had them in their seafood case today, so we bought two of them. 

This evening we had our long-awaited Dungeness crab feed!
Here's the menu: Spring greens with avocado, orange, and dried cranberries, cheesy parmesan bread, a little dark beer (we shared a bottle), warm lemon butter for dipping, and a whole crab each.

Eating crab is a messy business, so towels serve as napkins and newspaper covers the table. The crab is served cold, back and carapace shells and organs removed. They do that for us at the grocery store. 
That first bite, for me always a plump upper leg section, carefully removed from the shell, dipped in lemon butter, is so worth the work and the wait. 

This is a meal where you take your time, and enjoy every sweet, tender morsel. 

13 comments:

  1. Sounds like you truly enjoy your crab!! Your spring salad sounds wonderful!

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is all completely foreign to me. So glad you wrote about it because I’ve been reading about the Dungeness crabs being late this season which meant nothing to me. Wish I lived closer. I would have bought myself my very own crab and joined you.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I see them in our stores way down here already cooked. I tend to avoid pre-cooked seafood and we do our our blue crabs in summer and fall. I will check the price next time, although I am sure it is high.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Living inland we don't often have this delicacy. It sounds delicious.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Looks wonderfully yummy. Reminiscent of fresh lobster dinner on the northeast coast, which a summer splurge for my family.

    ReplyDelete
  6. It sounds delicious. I have had crab once in awhile, but usually in something and in pieces, not whole like that. Sounds like a lot of work but with a wonderful payoff. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Glad the season in now in. I often wondered if crab and lobster are really that good or are they just vessels for lemon butter:)

    ReplyDelete
  8. I like juncos. Great new header.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Glad you enjoyed your first crab of the season!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Oh gosh! My mouth is watering. I LOVE crab! This is reminding me of the blue crab we had in Maryland with Old Bay seasoning. It was awesome. I love that the grocery store cleans it up for you.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Looks good. Fine dinner.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Looks really good to me except I don't like avacado:) We are having meatloaf and baked potatoes tonight...and brownies:)

    ReplyDelete
  13. The whole meal looks and sounds delicious, but something I've never had. You set a pretty table even on newspaper.

    ReplyDelete

I would love to read your comments. Since I link most posts to Facebook, you may comment there if you do not have an account. I have eliminated Anonymous comments due to spammers.