After all of that cookbook genealogy last week I need a little rest so here’s a crab recipe from “My Favorite Maryland Recipes.” Many people who may not be familiar with the Tawes name were made so recently when Maryland’s current governor elected to attend the J. Millard Tawes Crab & Clam Bake instead of the Republican Convention.
In all honesty this dish was just okay. Crab custard was winning a lot of recipe contests in the 1960s and a lot of those recipes were more seasoned than this. I recommend more mustard powder, Old Bay or hot sauce.
Mr. & Mrs. J Millard Tawes, Maryland State Archives
I will add a little bit of filler in the form of clippings showing the long-standing tension between Maryland’s and Virginia’s natural resource management strategies. It seems that Maryland had long been begging Virginia to enact a law against harvesting female crabs with their eggs, aka “sponge crab.”
Daily Times, Salisbury, 1944
Star-Democrat, Easton, 1951
Daily Times, Salisbury, 1962
As you can see, the resentment simmered for decades.
Virginia finally did pass such a law in 2010.
Recipe:
1 Lb crab meat
2 eggs, beaten
1.5 Cup milk
.25 Teaspoon mustard powder
salt
pepper, black
butter
Beat eggs and add milk, mustard, salt and pepper to taste. Gently stir in crab meat. Place in a buttered casserole and dot with butter. Bake at 325° about 20 minutes, or until set.
Recipe adapted from “My Favorite Maryland Recipes”
Update (2023): The recipe in this post was apparently invented by a woman named Connee Rauser Sheckler, who won a contest with it. It appeared in the “Cooking with Old Bay” cookbook under the name she gave it, “Old Bay Bianca Pizza.” I think I should make this dish again and share a few more of the details given to me by Mrs. Sheckler!
After over a years worth of Old Line Plate recipes, I suppose it’s about time that Old Bay, that icon of Maryland food, makes an appearance. I fully admit that the reason behind this lazy recipe and post is partially because I’m gearing up for CSA season. Also, I feel like I have exhausted the topic of manors and hotels for the time being. I’m hoping to get back towards one of my original aims, which is to talk about the actual food once in awhile.
First of all, I feel it necessary to mention that Old Bay isn’t the only game in town and all of the other crab seasonings are worth a try. J.O. is the most notable as it also dates back to the mid-1940′s and is the one most often used by crab houses.
1959 crab house ad
These seasonings are the grand-child of “kitchen pepper,” customized blends of seasonings that varied from cook-to-cook but generally contained pepper, nutmeg, mace or white pepper, cinnamon and other ‘warm’ spices to the cook’s taste. Aside from the convenience of having the spice blend on-hand, the flavors in the pre-mixed seasoning were believed to benefit from mingling before use.
Mrs. B.C. Howard’s Kitchen Pepper, 50 Years in a Maryland Kitchen
Old Bay Seasoning, developed by German immigrant Gustav Brunn, was named after a famous steamship that operated between Baltimore and Norfolk, VA from 1840 to 1962. That whole tale is on Wikipedia so I won’t belabor it.
“[In 1939], crabs were so plentiful that bars in Baltimore, Maryland, offered them free[citation needed] and salty seasonings like Old Bay were created to encourage patrons to purchase more beverages.” – Wikipedia
Citation needed indeed. Many listings for the price of crabs in the newspapers, a 1938 crab conservation bill, and the knowledge that even a free crab has a cost when you factor in the cleanup all run counter to this fun fact.
1950 ad
But all is not lost. I have a new fun fact to replace it. In 1955, the purveyors of Old Bay, Baltimore Spice Company, were fined $500. Apparently it was illegal to ship salt and pepper mixed together across state lines.
I suppose that law was done away with shortly thereafter as Old Bay really took hold and became a household name in the 1960′s. The seasoning company was then, of course, purchased by McCormick in 1990.
This is one of the more modern recipes to ever appear on Old Line Plate. It comes from an early 1990s charity cookbook called “Developmental Delites.” This book raised money for the “The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Neurodevelopmental Committee” at Franklin Square Hospital. Contributed by nurse Beth Ann Legambi, it is one of two recipes in the book featuring Old Bay.
Nowadays it’s pretty hard to turn your head one way or the other in Baltimore and not have some Old Bay shoved in your face. I tend to believe this is more on the part of advertisements and media than it is the actual people. While it is true that my mother has dutifully provided my California-residing-brother with this necessity, for most Marylanders, Old Bay is a fact of life more than a rabid obsession.
Recipe:
1 12″ pizza crust
2 Teaspoon olive oil
2 Cup picked crab meat, backfin
8 slice cooked and crumbled bacon
1 Tablespoon Old Bay [or other crab -ed] seasoning
1.5 Cup grated sharp Cheddar cheese
Preheat oven to 425°. Place crust onto a greased 12-inch pizza pan. Top with olive oil, crab meat, bacon, Old Bay seasoning and cheese. Bake on lowest oven rack at 425° for 20 minutes or until crust is golden.
Crab season is finally in full swing for those of us who cling to the ‘late-summer through Thanksgiving is crab season’ principle. In my opinion, September is a great time to enjoy crabs because the weather is usually amazing, the last of the corn and watermelon are demanding to be eaten, and the frenzy of summer fun times is finally over.
This is the time when you can really kick back and appreciate the crab.
Warning: this post is FULL of my opinions.
First off, let me address southern naysayers who declare that steamed crabs have no flavor. Well, the flavor of a crab comes from the crab, not from all the spice. If I want to enjoy a bunch of spices (and I often do) I will get some cheap shrimp, rice, etc. When I shell out (ha) for crabs I want to taste the succulent crab meat.
Furthermore, I do not like to dip crab in butter for this same reason. Or vinegar! God, I’m getting worked up now… steamed even.
Not many people steam their own crabs anymore. You can get great crabs all steamed up for you at no extra cost, saving the kitchen space demanded by a gigantic pot, keeping your fingers intact, and avoiding the horrors of killing a live animal before your eyes.
Aside from the experience and the excitement of your meal possibly giving you the attack you rightly deserve, the main difference in home-steamed crabs is going to be the seasonings.
I’m not as Old Bay-crazed as advertising directed at me seems to believe – I like J.O., Obrycki’s, all the other crab seasonings… J.O. is the one used by crab houses for the most part. So it is interesting to actually steam some crabs with Old Bay and taste the difference.
Beer versus vinegar: I don’t want to impart any sour taste so I stick with *flat* beer. Vinegar is more popular in places with a history of temperance such as Smith Island.
Live crabs: Don’t submerge them in water but do keep them cool and wet. A wet cardboard box works well. They are prone to escape so watch out, keep the box folded closed. And mind your fingers.
Corn: I like grilled corn but steamed corn is pretty good too, especially when it’s in season and freshly picked.
A
dozen crabs and six ears of corn is a lot for two people but you can scrape
off the extra corn and pick the extra crab meat and put it into your
morning omelet or tomorrow’s soup.
Recipe:
1 dozen live male crabs
1 flat beer
½ cup crab seasoning
Put a can of flat beer and some water in the bottom of a steamer pot, to just below the rack. Put in your live crabs and then season them (that is the part that feels cruel somehow). Turn on the heat and steam for just under a half hour. Crabs will be red and hot.
