HOT CRAB FLAKE SANDWICH

Last Friday, our friends from Murrell's Inlet, South Carolina came to visit. Guy set the table with his crab paper and we steamed about 3 dozen blue claws for a crab feast. All we needed to accompany the steamed crabs was fresh local corn on the cob and a simple tomato-cucumber-green pepper salad. Dessert was cheesecake that I had frozen.

Fortunately, this feast meant that our freezer was emptied of crabs. Unfortunately, we had about a dozen crabs left over. (I didn't eat any crabs.)

We took our friends to Pamlico County and we checked the crab
traps. Here's a photo of one of the crab traps. There were about 10 crabs in each trap. We threw a few back in. It's not that they were too small; it's just that most were so large, the standard-size crabs looked small. So, all in all, our friends had 2 dozen crabs to take home -- cleaned and iced. You can see in the bottom photo how Guy does it. He rips the back shell off and hoses out the mustard, then puts the crab on ice. This is how New Jerseyans do crabs -- we clean 'em before we eat 'em.

On Sunday, Guy and I picked the leftover steamed crabs and got 2 heaping cups of crabmeat, which means I need some recipes. While I'm searching for recipes, here's one to keep you busy:


Hot Crab Flake Sandwich
(Merchant's Club, Baltimore, Md.)
1 lb. backfin crabmeat
6 Tbsp. butter or margarine
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp. pepper
3 dashed liquid hot pepper sauce
1 pt. cream or half and half
8 slices toast
Sherry, if desired

Remove cartilage from crabmeat. Melt butter in 2-qt. saucepan; add crabmeat, and saute` until heated through. Add salt, Worcestershire, pepper and liquid hot pepper sauce. Add cream and allow mixture to come just to the boiling point, but do NOT boil.

Place 1 slice of toast on each of 4 plates. Using a slotted spoon, cover toast slices with crab flakes. Top with another slice of toast and cover with remaining crabmeat. Pour desired amount of sauce on each sandwich and serve. Sprinkle with sherry, if desired. Makes 4 sandwiches.