It's always Dungeness crab time in the Northwest, but a summer weekend when it's not raining is always a great occasion to break them out. Unfortunately the ones we bought this time were not cleaned, which meant learning more about a crab's anatomy than we would have ever cared to know. This video on how to clean a Dungeness crab was the best resource we found for it.
The crabs were pre-cooked however, which meant that we just had to steam them for 3-4 minutes to warm them up. We usually go one whole crab per person, which yields about 1/2 lb to 1 lb of crab meat. You'll need a crab cracker and a skinny crab fork to pull out the meat (or you can use a claw). We then serve them with these dipping sauces:
Garlic-Bacon Salt Butter
- 1 stick of butter
- 3 cloves of garlic, chopped
- 1-2 tsp of Bacon Salt (we prefer the Peppered), or more to taste
- Fresh ground black pepper to taste
Melt butter with garlic in a saucepan or in the microwave.
Garlic-Tomato Baconnaise Aioli
- 1 cup Baconnaise
- 1/8 cup ketchup (optional - you can make a non-tomato version)
- 3-5 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- Fresh ground black pepper to taste
- Small squeeze of lemon juice
Mix all ingredients together and serve with steamed crab.
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