Why do chefs search out Blue Crab Meat?
Options do present themselves when preparing crab dishes. Snow, Dungeness or even imitation may fill the recipe’s requirements, but the sweetness in blue crab meat knows no comparison. Pristine white, but with some yellowish or orange hints, freshly picked crab meat should represent the excitement of finding a delicious morsel, just like at the crab feast. Yellowish hints show the mustard or crab fat accompanaying a beautiful chunk. An occasional orange ball serves as an obvious sign of freshly picked meat by hand. Those balls encompass crab roe or eggs that taste even sweeter than the meat. Proteins in the meat, when steamed or boiled, give blue crabs that signature sweetness.
Of course, your crab meat containers offer “already cooked” meat that’s recipe ready. Chefs know this and unload claw meat for Maryland Crab Soup with the darker, fibrous, and robust chunks. True Bay enthusiasts search high and low for the best lump meat for their secret crab cake recipe. Do you have one? Of course, jumbo meat with huge chunks causes quite a commotion around the dinner table. Chefs go with this excitement with a rich crab imperial. Which meat will you explore for tonight’s dinner, or will you use all three?
