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Mr. Luddite

On 10/27/2015 8:15 PM, wrote:
On Tue, 27 Oct 2015 16:32:33 -0700, Califbill billnews wrote:

Our Dungeness crabs have lots of meat, so worth banging. Couple times I
had soft shell crabs, did not impress me.

I picked one out down in the market in San Francisco once. It is OK
but not as much flavor as a real Chesapeake blue crab.
The crabs down here are not as good. It probably has to do with the
fact that then never hibernate. The best crabs are right before the
first molt of the early summer.

On soft shells, freshness is a big deal. Frozen ones will not be as
good. Usually they are lightly sauteed in butter with a tiny pinch of
old bay. Don't over cook them. On your coast they may have been
steamed before they were shipped.

During my last two years in the Navy, stationed in Annapolis, MD, we'd
go get chicken backs and necks, tie them to the lines of our fishing
poles, cast out, let the chicken sink to the bottom and pull up two or
three soft shells at a time. Problem was the sea gulls we attracted.