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