Crab Mushroom Cap Recipe : Home and Lifestyle TV

Home and Lifestyle TV presents "Tuscany, the building of a Dallas hot spot," shows us a mouthwatering mushroom cap and crab recipe.

Soft Shell Crab Recipe

Ingredients
Soft shelled crabs
Salt
Pepper
Bread crumbs
Egg
Fat

Directions
Clean crabs, sprinkle with salt and pepper, dip in crumbs, egg, and crumbs, fry in deep fat, and drain. Being light they will rise to top of fat, and should be turned while frying. Soft-shell crabs are usually fried.

To Clean a Crab. Lift and fold back the tapering points which are found on each side of the back shell, and remove spongy substance that lies under them. Turn crab on its back, and with a pointed knife remove the small piece at lower part of shell, which terminates in a point; this is called the apron.

Source: Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, 1896

Hot Crabs Recipe

Ingredients
Crabs
Nutmeg
Salt
Cayenne pepper
Butter
Bread crumbs, grated
Vinegar
Dry toast, crusts cut off

Directions

Boil the crabs.
Extract the meat from the shells.
Cut it fine, and season it to taste with nutmeg, salt, and cayenne pepper.
Add a bit of butter, some grated bread crumbs, and sufficient vinegar to moisten it.
Fill the back-shells of the crab with the mixture; set it before the fire, and brown it by holding a red-hot shovel or a salamander a little above it.
Cover a large dish with small slices of dry toast with the crust cut off.
Lay on each slice a shell filled with the crab.
The shell of one crab will contain the meat of two.

Source: Directions for Cookery, 1851

Cooking Live Crabs : Roasted Garlic Crab

Singleguychef's excellent video of how to cook roasted garlic crabs.

Cooking Live Crabs : How to Clean a Live Crab

Singleguychef's excellent video of how to cook crabs. This video shows how to clean a live crab.

Fricassee of Crabs Recipe

Ingredients
6 fat crabs
2 onions
butter, 1 tablespoon or butter & lard mixed
flour, 1 spoonful
parsley, chopped
green onion
rice

Directions
Take six nice fat crabs, wash them, and while alive chop off the claws; then clean the rest of the crabs carefully and lay them in a dish.

Chop up two onions fine, fry them in a tablespoonful of butter, or butter and lard mixed; when brown and soft stir in a large spoonful of flour, which must also brown nicely; throw in some chopped parsley and a little green onion, and when they are cooked pour on a quart of boiling water—this is the gravy.

Now put in the crabs without parboiling.
Let them simmer in the gravy for half an hour, and serve with boiled rice.
Parboiling crabs destroys their flavor; they should be alive to the last moment.

Source: La Cuisine Creole, 1885

How to cook devilled crabs

Ingredients
1 cup chopped crab meat
1/4 cup mushrooms finely chopped
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
2/3 cup White Stock
Yolks 2 eggs
2 tablespoons sherry wine
1 teaspoon finely chopped parsley
Salt and pepper

Directions
Make a sauce of butter, flour, and stock
add egg yolks, seasonings (except parsley), crab meat, and mushrooms.

Cook for three minutes, add parsley, and cool mixture.

Wash and trim crab shells, fill rounding with mixture, sprinkle with stale bread crumbs mixed with a small quantity of melted butter.

Crease on top with a case knife, having three lines parallel with each other across shell and three short lines branching from outside parallel lines.

Source: Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, 1896

How to Cook Cold Crabs

Directions
Take the meat out of the shells

Make a dressing that contains : sweet oil, cayenne pepper, salt, mustard and vinegar.

Optional: add some hard-boiled egg yolk, mashed in the oil.

Put the mixture into the back-shells of the crabs, and serve.

Garnish with the small claws laid nicely round.

Source: Directions for Cookery, 1851