What is your favorite crab boil?

[noclothes1]

I had some boiled crab last year that knocked the pants off the bland way that my mother inlaw makes it; straight water. To me, with no spices in the boil all I can taste is the butter.

Please share your favorite crab boils and dipping sauce as crab season is right around the corner.

Thanks

[swedefish4life1]

Fishless with zero clothes ON!:colors:

Dungy#-o bring to a boil not over cooked they get bright orange there done!!!!

Cardio Center:cheers:

Real Butter whole garlic and whole pepper grind into the heated Butter and Pig Out:-$ almost not one even fishless could Crab this one out!????:cheers:

We have 2 outside Burners Propane= 24-7 first the shrimp then the Crab as side dishes to KINGS:-$ :chef:

My side dishes are 3 to 4 lbs of crab:thumleft: then bang the King :viking: then call the heart lab!!!=d>

[noclothes1]

I use mine for Home Brew. Hasn't seen much action lately, might as well give some crabbies a warm bath this summer.

I want me some cajun crab. Them bugs don't taste like nuffin!

I'm changin my handle to NOFish1. Extending the skunk streak tonight on the Cascade.

[swedefish4life1]

LOVE IT!!!!:-$

Creativity:thumright =d>

[jens]

Do you guys use a little bit of sea-salt in your boil?

[swedefish4life1]

Just a Tad:-$ and Jens:cheers: thanks for Bringing that to a Boil!:chef:

[jens]

Just a Tad:-$ and Jens:cheers: thanks for Bringing that to a Boil!:chef:

LOl:cheers: :chef:

[A9]

Cook em whole. Keep em live, dump em in live. Cook em in their guts, they'll come out very tasty compared to cooking a cleaned crab.

Use fresh saltwater from the sound in your bucket, dump in some rock salt for good measure. No other flavors/additions.

Boil the live crab for 15 minutes, take out and clean. If you like em cold, refrigerate before eating, otherwise pick away at the cleaned crab.

I'm no fan of butter dipping sauce. I like my crab plain usually, sometimes with cocktail sauce. Get some good cocktail sauce and mix some horseradish in there to give it a kick. I don't like dipping crab in mass amounts of melted butter or anything like that. For me, the taste of crab is good enough if you boil em in saltwater, why dilute that taste with any other flavors?

If ya got leftover crab meat, throw em in your omelets in the morning. There's not much better than coming in after a morning of salmon fishing and having a nice crab omelet...

[DougShields.com]

Bravo on the horseradish in the cocktail sauce! Very good! I also enjoy fresh crab plain in addition to the other ways mentioned here. :bounce:

[Dave]

I keep it simple and use salt water from the Sound when boiling Dungeness crab. I love it after it cools just a bit and for sure when it’s cold. I like it as fresh as possible and find that after about 3 or more days (it usually never lasts that long at my house) the flavor starts to depreciate, so I like to eat it in the first couple days. As mentioned by A9, I to eat it plain for the most part but occasionally I add some real melted butter to the mix which is a nice treat. OMG I love crab and can’t wait for July to get here. I will be out there on Friday the 3rd. The pic was taken on July 30th 2008. There are 25 cooked crab in the photo. There were 5 of us on board and we used 8 pots which soaked for 2 hours. We tossed back as many keepers as we kept and did this literally every weekend of the 2008 summer season. We fished the same spot each time out and the crab numbers were abundant. 2008 was bar none the best crab season I have experienced in the last 12 years.

[Bodofish]

Right on Dave!!!! it's ok for small batches but for the comercial gig we used to do 7% salinity for the boil. No spices!!!! Crab has a nice delicate flavor if you don't cook the piss out of it. I'll take mine straight!

[jens]

Dave, I am drooling..

[cobrar543]

I was going to start this type of thread soon..glad to see someone else did. As the new Island guy, I was wondering where to drop the traps and how to boil them... Now all I have to do is put a GPS tracker on Daves boat and wait...then I will have the secrets..LOL:batman:

[swedefish4life1]

We kill 1,000's of dungies a year my boys hold more value then I do as it takes time to do this while I am out chasing fish:cheers: but I am a firm firm beliver in the combo system:-$ :bounce: :chef: and taking advantage of it!:-$

I will tell you this Crab is that highest level to blast blood CHOLESTERAL into your body of almost all Seafood[-x and if its taken near a City or Humans its dirty beyond when tested for these issues bottom feeders[-(

Where Salmon is rich with reduction of such and loaded with Rich Omega 3's =d> which in fact will change your blood test.

I reduced mine 100 points just cutting down on Crab but like all things I ate it in arm loads just a heads up from all the Cardio centers I see and yes I still eat crab but in much smaller servings:study:

[wolverine]

I've never been a fan of crab cooked with the guts still in them. I split and clean them, toss the halves into heavily salted boiling water, when done throw the cooked halves into ice water (it keeps the meat tender), drain and serve with either a home made cocktail sauce or melted unsalted butter with a ton of finely chopped garlic in it and a little chopped parsley. No heavy spices for me as I want to taste the crab. If you add a lot of spices to the boil you might as well eat fake crab as you kill the dungy taste with all the spices.

[mav186]

HOLY CRICKEY DAVE...What a bounty!! There are some GREAT suggestions on the ol' crab boils!!!

[Maury]

Great thread.
I totally agree w/ wolverine. clean em, cook in salt water for 11 minutes then straight into salted ice water to stop the cooking. served with your favorite barley pop,:cheers: mmmmmmmmmm.
Maury

[Dave]

Last year by accident, on our first trip out, we found a prime crab ground, and ended up fishing it every weekend after that during the entire summer season. We honestly limited (5 on board and 25 in the live well) in under 2 hours, each time out fishing the same spot. We never had to soak the pots for more than 2 hours and we released as many keepers each trip as we kept. We also had a few pots raided which I mentioned in my reports, so numbers were amazing. We also learned not to leave our pots unattended so this season we will be anchored in the distance using binoculars to watch the pots. With 5 of us (cops) on board, we plan on arresting whomever we catch pulling our pots. It will also be appropriate to take the suspect's boat as evidence so whomever chooses to raid our pots this season is in for a big surprise. Anyway, we set some pots on one occasion maybe 50 feet from this prime spot and the numbers in the pots decreased. So with Dungeness it really does seem to matter where you set your gear. I've never seen anything like it and man was it some good eating. Here are a few more pics from last summer season.

[racfish]

Im with Dave on this. We crabbed last year and limmited each time.My favorite boil is water/salt.I want to taste crab not herbs and spices.2008 was indeed a great year for us as well.My pots dont get stolen cuz I keep a close eye on them.I dont lose sight of them ever.Like Dave I invite any idiot that wants to try stealing my pots.(no cops on board) hehehe.

[Rich McVey]

Dave... If you need any help with the pots, manual labor, filming the arrest, or you simply caught more than you can eat... we'll be up there next week thru the 5th and would glad to help! :chef: