My Dad was born and raised in Baltimore, and if there is one thing that makes you think of Baltimore is Maryland Style Steamed Blue Crabs. By far, the best way to cook and eat crabs.
Maryland Style Steamed Crab
Print recipe
| By author | Bill via Dish Ditty Recipes |
Ingredients
- LARGE Steamer Pot
- water
- vinegar
- live crabs
- kosher salt
- cayenne pepper
- dry yellow mustard
- black pepper
- Old Bay Seasoning
Directions
| Step 1 | |
| Place about 1/2-1 inch of water on the bottom of a extremely large steamer pot. Add about 1 cup of vinegar to the pot. Place the steamer bottom on top of the water. The water should not go over the steamer rack. | |
| Step 2 | |
| Start layering the crabs with the seasonings. If you are cooking blue crabs, layer the crabs shell up. If you are cooking Dungeness crabs, layer the crabs shell down. Then add salt (liberally), cayenne pepper (to taste -- more will be spicier, but put at least a little even if you don't want spicy), black pepper (liberally), yellow dry mustard (moderately), and Old Bay Seasoning (liberally). Continue layering crabs and seasonings until you are done or fill the pot. | |
| Step 3 | |
| Turn the heat on the pot, cover and cook for about 45 minutes. Let cool for about 10-20 minutes or just Serve!!! | |
We now live in California, not Baltimore. We still get wonderful live crabs, but they are Dungeness crabs, not Blue crabs. So, we’ve learned to adjust.
Here’s a link to the Facebook Live video we did at our last family crab feast:
And then, my amazing niece and her husband has put together a fun video of their blue crab feast in New York…
absolutely right
This isn’t even a blue crab! No no no.
So sorry! But have you seen the embarrassing blue crabs we get in California?!? You can’t even understand the pain we have when we try to get them. So, unfortunately, it is dungeness crabs for us. 🙁 We have bought blue crabs live and shipped them to us, with about 50% loss rate. We’ve bought them pre-steamed, not horrible but really not great. I’d rather have a fresh steamed dungeness crab than no crab at all!