We used our new, cheap stockpot purchase Saturday at Family Dollar for $10. It probably won't last but it worked just fine for our shrimp boil that night and we figured it would work for crabs too. We decided to use the grill so we wouldn't heat up the boat. A generous heap of Old Bay was added to the water as it heated AND to the garlic butter. FYI -Old Bay is awesome on corn on the cob. We will never use salt and pepper again on corn as long as we have Old Bay in the boat. Give it a try.
Once the water was boiling, we put 3 crabs in at a time and boiled them for 10 mins. Fresh green beans and Vidalia onions from the farmers market were roasted up in a pan with some olive oil, salt and pepper. A big sweet potato was baked up on the grill as well (in foil).
We haven't yet had a chance to pick up proper crab/lobster claw crackers so we used the pliers and metal skewers instead. I did sustain my first crab injury by cutting open the tip of my thumb on a sharp claw. Small price to pay for all the yumminess we enjoyed.
*Care of crabs prior to cooking
According to our crab experts, you need to take care of the crabs between catching them and cooking them. You really don't want to have more than 6 in a trap at one time. You can put them in a cooler with ice BUT you cannot put them in direct contact with the ice because fresh water will kill them. So put your ice in the bottom of the cooler and then put a towel or old t-shirt down on top the ice, then put the crabs in on top of the towel. Take care to drain the water periodically and add fresh ice as needed. Best to transfer them into a 5 gallon bucket temporarily while draining and adding ice. Be sure they are right side up. If you leave them upside down, it will kill them. No wonder craps are so crabby.....so many details.
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