When I was a kid, our family lived in Bristol and “a river runs through it.” The mighty Delaware‘s source is a stream in upstate New York. By the time it flows downstream in Hancock, New York, it is a sizable two-forked river that then passes many river towns as it winds down past Philadelphia, before emptying its mouth into the Atlantic at the Delaware Bay.
The English settled in Bristol, following William Penn, who made Bristol a stop as he journeyed in his rowing barge to and from Philadelphia and his farmstead, his upriver Pennsbury Manor. A landfill larger than one can imagine now borders Pennsbury Manor, approved by Tullytown Borough, whose landowners now pay no real estate taxes in their Faustian bargain to approve this affront to history and the environment.
In the 40’s Bristol was primarily an old factory town that was first populated by the aristocratic English, then the immigrant Irish and lastly the immigrant Italians. The English lived in the Harriman section of town, the Irish surrounded St. Mark’s Parish, and the Italians, St. Anne’s.
The class boundaries were not well respected by the time I came along, as after marriage, my Dad bought a home on Jackson Street in Harriman with money that was refunded to him by his mother. She had saved his earnings from his labors starting at the age of 14.
I know, what about the spaghetti and crabs. Here is where that comes in. My mother’s mother died when she was 5 years old, so she was raised in her paternal grandmother’s home and her father Pat’s (Pasqual) sister Anne’s home. It was Aunt Annie who first introduced me to the blue claw crab, callinectes sapidus, the” beautiful swimmer”.
Aunt Annie was quite a character. She kept a numbers book for her butcher, Sheik Masandi and a dream book was often on her kitchen table. Friends would drop off food for her, be it vegetables picked in Green Lane Farm’s fields, fish that the men caught in Barnegat Bay, or blue claws from crabbing in Seaside. When a bushel of crabs was dropped off, I was in demand.
Aunt Annie had a way of getting your help with a chore while making you enjoy it. A perfect example was the way nobody cleaned the tile in her bathroom like my sister Sandy. In my case I was a perfect choice to shuck crabs. At age 10 or so, I met the challenge.
Upon a crab delivery the wooden bushel was placed in Aunt Annie’s breezeway next to the kitchen door. I would take the crabs out of the basket and they would hang onto each other in the process. It was next to impossible to remove them one crab at a time. Consequently I would be running all over the driveway, rounding up the runaways. A sneaker-clad foot helped in this process.
One can grab the backside of a crab while it flails away with its claws that can’t reach far enough behind itself to grab the offending hand. This method was not foolproof, but the “grab from behind” technique is still employed by me today.
The procedure of cleaning a live crab begins with grabbing the crab from behind and breaking a claw; the claw just needs to be injured, not torn off. The crab, sensing that an enemy has partially disarmed him, ejects the claw so it is better able to flee its tormentor. Then proceed to the second claw with the same result. The disarmed crab may then be flipped over where the carapace is removed by prying up the flap, thrusting a thumb or knife between the upper shell and the body, and tearing off the shell. The crab is then cleaned of its lungs and dried a bit. It is now ready for sautéing in olive oil before tomato and spice are added to make the sauce.
The crab is cleaned alive because the cook (me) believes that this imparts the best crab flavor to the sauce. My mother wouldn’t mess with a live crab and if I wasn’t around. She would dump the crabs into a pot of boiling water for a minute, and then proceed to remove the shell and clean the crab. Some old timers believed that the water-logged crab lost a little flavor with this method. The compromise is to put the crabs in the freezer to slow them down. Take them out while they are letargico, but work quickly at your peril as they wake quickly as well.
I have been screwing around with the blue claw for close to 70 years. So here are my techniques on the subject dish. Please note that when making spaghetti and crabs, it says spaghetti. Linguini is for clams; spaghetti is for crabs, and I don’t know why.
The Basic Recipe:
Clean the crabs by any of the above methods, then sauté them and the claws in olive oil with garlic, a whole peeled onion and red pepper to taste. I don’t cut up the onion, but cook it whole in the sauce.
As you cook the crabs, the shells turn a bit golden. Be on the generous side with the oil as the crabs are imparting flavor that is carried by the oil. Cook at a moderate temperature, and then add the tomato, broken by hand, or passata, if you can find it. Add some basil or parsley if basil is not available.
I generally take most of the crabs out of the sauce early as the cooking makes the crabmeat mushy. Mushy crabmeat doesn’t appeal to me. Put the crabs back in after the sauce is finished to get the chill off.
I also like steamed crabs and boiled crabs, the later of which I have been doing lately.
Steamed Crabs:
Simply take out your steamer, put an inch or two of water into a large pot, add crabs a handful at a time and a good bit of seasoning as you layer the crabs. Old Bay or some crab boil works as the salt content firms up the meat as they steam. When the crabs turn bright red, go another minute or two and that’s it. I like a bottle of beer instead of all water. Some vinegar in the liquid works as well. This is Maryland style.
If you don’t have a steamer, improvise. Some balled up foil in the bottom of the pot will work, or perhaps you have a rack that can fit into the pot.
Boiled Crabs:
To me this is the best of both worlds as the result is perfectly cooked crabs, as well as great crab gravy for your pasta. You don’t have to choose between good sauce and mushy crabs vs., good crabs and no sauce. Here it is.
Fill a big pot about halfway up with water; add quite a bit of crab boil, a few bay leaves and red wine vinegar. Bring to a rolling boil and then pour in the live crabs. Don’t cook more than a dozen at a time.
Bring the pot back to the boil and cook seven minutes after the second boil. If you look closely some greenish/whitish spots will appear on the shells. If you start to overcook, these spots disappear. Remove the crabs and, when cool enough to handle, tear off the top shells. This makes eating easier and you are ready to spread the newspaper on the table. I like my crabs cold as the meat sets up better, but either way, they should be juicy and tasty. May we say succulent?
Don’t discard the shells. The shells form the base for your gravy. If you just want to eat the crabs, the shells can be frozen and used later for the gravy or a crab bisque soup.
Red Sauce:
Now for the gravy. Dry the top shells with paper towel and then sauté them in oil with the garlic, pepper and onion, as noted above. You are just using shells instead of the crab body. After the shells start to brown add the tomato and basil and simmer partially covered for a good hour of more. The shells impart the flavor so this works well.
Cool the sauce a bit and remove the shells. This will be a great crab sauce without the crabmeat. If you are feeling guilty or want to be opulent, throw a can of crabmeat into the sauce after the sauce is fully cooked. Remember, the canned crab has been pasteurized, and furthermore, it imparts little flavor. Just try making sauce with only a can of crabmeat if you don’t believe me,
So there it is. Eat your boiled crabs as your first course and follow with your pasta and salad. The boiled crabs will be moister than the steamed crabs. They can be stored in the fridge if you want to do everything ahead of time. Then when guests arrive, pour a glass of wine, turn the water up to boil the pasta and make a salad.
Enough on crabs. Did I tell you that Bristol’s churches were segregated? Believe it. The Anglican was for the blue bloods, St. Mark’s was for the Irish and St. Anne’s was for the Italians. What’s wrong with that? It’s understandable that those Micks didn’t want any Wops in St. Marks, and visa versa.
By the way, Aunt Annie’s husband, Uncle Nick, built St. Anne’s, so a Wop builder was acceptable to the congregation. Uncle Nick also built their family’s home with the crab cleaning breezeway. It was the nicest home owned by an Italian immigrant in the town.
And by the way, he also built a home for my parents along the Cooper River in Collingswood where my sister, Sandy lives to this day.
Fini
ARR on 9/17/20, in The Age Of The Trump Virus.
