Cooking with "Softies"

How to Clean, Prepare, and Enjoy Softshell Crabs This Season

June is upon us and on the East Coast, when it comes to seafood, that means it’s softshell crab season! These delectable crustaceans from Maryland, South Carolina, and Louisiana usually start showing up at the end of May, and they’ll stick around until about Mid-July. Prices usually range between three and six dollars depending on where they were harvested. Maryland crabs are very high quality, as the colder waters produce Blue Crabs high in delicious fat, and these are usually the most sought after.

While many chefs experiment with numerous way of “crusting” these crabs with different flours, cornmeal, nuts, and even plantains, they can be prepared as simply as sautéed whole with salt and pepper. Still, the preferred method is frying them, producing a super crunchy coating that contrasts perfectly with the inside meat, which, under the crisp “soft shell”, becomes smooth and creamy.

Most supermarkets will try to carry softshells during the season, and they can be easily purchased at the Whole Foods fish market or Wegman’s. It is extremely important to make sure that when buying them, the crab is still very active and moving when picked up. If you must keep the crabs in your refrigerator for a few days before using them, hold them in a cardboard box, a shoebox perhaps, covered with a damp towel. If the crabs die after you buy them but before you use them they will still be good. Just make sure they are completely free of an ammonia-like odor, as this means the crab has gone bad.

To prepare the crabs, there are three things that need to be cleaned off the body before cooking. First, most cooks will use kitchen shears to remove the face of the crab with one snip. Second, under each side of the “shell” are lung tissue, which needs to be cut out as well, and third, the sex organs need to be removed from the underside of the crab. They are simply folded out and snipped off. Overall, this process is very quick and easy, but it is not for the squeamish. Many fish mongers will handle this cleaning process for you if you do not want to do it yourself.

The diagram below shows the areas that need to be cleaned, and once this is done we can bread the crab, and fry it! These little guys are perfect for the beginning of the summer, fried crisp over a nice bed of citrus dressed greens, sautéed with forbidden rice, caramelized sunchokes and eggplant, or even grilled, with bacon, fennel, and leeks. Nothing says “Summer’s Here!” more than softshells… except maybe cherries… or peaches… or maybe squash blossoms.