Slow: Food Worth Taking Time Over

50g salt

1 tbsp black peppercorns

Check that your stock pot is big enough to hold the crabs, then place the bouillon ingredients in it, along with enough water to cover. Bring to the boil and cook the bouillon for 10–15 minutes.

Place the crabs in the bouillon water and boil for 10–12 minutes, depending on how big they are. Scoop them out and plunge them into iced water to cool quickly, but don’t leave for more than 2–3 minutes as you don’t want the meat to become saturated. Allow to cool and put in the fridge as soon as you can if not preparing immediately.

To prepare the crabs, set out one bowl for white meat and one bowl for brown meat. Remove the claws and smash them with the back of a cook’s knife (not the sharp side or it will blunt it). Try to break them with one sharp blow, to prevent the shell shattering into tiny pieces. Remove the meat from inside the claws and put into the bowl reserved for the white meat. It should pull away relatively easily but be careful to leave any shell pieces behind. Discard the cartilage from the middle of the claws. Next twist off the legs. With a lobster pick, skewer or the end of a teaspoon, carefully pull the white meat out of the legs. In my opinion it’s only worth bothering with the larger section of each leg.

To remove the meat from the main body of the crab, lay it on a surface with the underside facing you. Use the palm of your hand to push down on the shell and put your fingers into the gap where the body meets the shell around the mouth. Pull quite firmly and it should come apart in one piece. Pull away the feathery gills (grimly known as dead man’s fingers) around the sides of the body and the shell. Use a spoon to scoop out all the brown meat from the crevices of the shell into the second bowl.

Cut the degilled body in half using a sharp knife. Using your implement of choice, carefully pick out all the meat from the crevices into the white meat bowl. I find this an exceedingly satisfying task; if you take your time you will be surprised how much meat you find. Finally, go through the bowl to check for any stray pieces of shell.

Dressed Crab On Toast (#ulink_a3759480-4185-5e2e-9e4e-8ff7c9bef7bf)

The most important of all crab dishes. Freshly cooked and picked crab – the white meat with a lick of fresh mayo and the brown pretty much the same – simply placed on top of freshly charred toast and topped with grated egg has to be one of the best things one can eat. Ever. Please, please, if only once in your life, give this a go.