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Cleaning Dungeness Crab
To cook and clean four Dungeness crabs:
Bring 7 quarts salted water or court bouillon (water, salt, halved lemons,
white vinegar, red pepper flakes, pickling spice, and bay leaves, boiled
together, then cooled) to a simmer.
Pick up a live crab by its last 2 hind legs. Hold them together tightly and
stroke the top of the head just behind the mouth until the crab falls asleep.
Lower into the pot slowly taking care not to scald yourself. Simmer the crabs
until they turn pink, about 10 minutes. Remove from the pot and let them
rest on their backs until cool enough to handle.
Twist the legs off the body. Crack lightly in several places with a nutcracker
and set aside. Holding the body backside up, place your right thumb in the
joint between the upper and lower shell on the side opposite the mouth. Your
palm will be stretched across the top of the shell. Hold the bottom of the
crab in your opposite hand. Force your thumb in and pull up and back to your
right until shell snaps off. Pour any juices in the shell into a small bowl.
Scrape the contents of the shell into a bowl. Snap the rest of the face off
the upper shell, and rinse out the shell. If you intend to use it for
presentation, pull off and discard the spongy lungs clinging to both sides
of the upper body. Turn the body over and snap off and discard the hard,
V-shaped sex. (If it is large, the crab is a female. If small, male.) Scrape
the liver and green tomalley into a bowl with the juices from the shell,
and reserve.
Snap off the rest of the face by inserting your thumb deeply into the hole
behind the face and pulling back and up. Cut the body into quarters and put
in a bowl with the legs.
To make a sauce with the reserved liquids, push them through a sieve into
a saucepan and cook with a pinch of saffron and dry white wine. Simmer until
very reduced. To make a dip, stir this sauce into mayonnaise and season with
red pepper flakes, raw garlic, freshly squeezed lemon juice, and finely chopped
fresh parsley.
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