To Judith 784

limey

I disagree about stale and unripe because I went to many supermarkets that during the season sourced most veg locally with big signs saying where. It may be the function of shopping in affluent areas where people cared a lot. As Dora says, this is a particular creature. They can't live stacked up in tanks like lobsters do. I have been to crab wholsalers, and the crabs are kept in brackish water from the wild that is shallow and continually running. To hold maybe 100 crabs you need a tank about 8 feet by 12 feet and only 10" deep. That doesn't work in a supermarket. It isn't something anyone would take on without a sure market, either. In fishmongers, they are dry in seaweed or on ice (a very temporary move) and culled continually to be cooked before they are dead. A dead crab is unsellable. I think it says something about the quality of this creature that this whole industry has been set up to sell it successfully. And that people will drive very far to get good crabs, do the messy cooking and eat them laboriously picking out the tiny pieces of meat. West coast crabs are bigger and more efficient in every way, but they cannot touch the blue crab for flavor. You can even buy frozen Alaskan crab legs that look like parts of a monster, and while they are OK, you will weep for not having blue crabs. Dora, I have a wonderful recipe for a crab souffl� that is delicious and also reheatable. Crabs here are about 1.5 inches across and not eaten like big crabs at all, so I can't make it here. Would you like the recipe?