Hello all, planning on doing some crab and scallops in a few hours. Have a good idea what we want to do with the scallops but have not tried or read about the crab before. We have a nice fresh Dungeness crab, all cleaned and good to cook. My thought is to brine it like the scallops and then just smoke at 200 or so until done. Any thoughts on time, temp, type of smoke or anything? The brine we are using is a brine we found in the forum for smoked shrimp. Water, salt, Brown sugar and pepper, simple but worked real well on shrimp.
Can't help with the crab but I'd sure like to hear how it turns out. Good luck!
SD
We eat Dungeness Crab quite a bit but have never smoked it. Your method sounds great and I am eager to hear how it works out for you!
We haven't had much luck with a brine since ours are already cooked. They tend to get water logged and then get mushy when we steam them. Using fresh and in the smoker may be perfect combination to solve those problems. Nice little steam bath. Excited to hear the results.
F R E S H Dungeness ?
what is the address ??
Never had it not frozen - tough to get this far away. I'm not sure if it would make it to my smoker, a steamer with some old bay is how I would do it...
Let us know how it turns out with Pics!
I'll let you know what happens, I have mixed up a brine using:
3 quarts water
1/2 C salt
1/4 cup garlic salt
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 Tblsp black pepper
1 1/2 Tblsp lemon pepper without salt
Will put the crab in there for half an hour or so and then into the smoker at around 200 until it looks done. Haven't tried this before but something about the sound and thought of smoked crab has my juices flowing.
SS this sounds great, the wife loves crab, well mainly crab legs. I want to hear a full report!! I've done the scallops and shrimp...yummy good stuff!
C
FRESH is the word, it was wiggling a few hours back. For the adress head north, come on up the inside passage and stop in Southeast Alaska. I am pretty sure we can fix you up with some fine fresh crab no matter where you stop. I'll scoop up a few extra for tomorrow and leave the light on, who ever shows up will be welcome!
We have tried cooking crab and freezing it for later use, maybe we are just spoiled but I pretty much have to have the fresh stuff. What we froze was mushy and waterlogged as you mention, good in egg fu yung or egg rolls but that was bout it.
Will let you all know how the experiment goes.
First Kummok is pulling in halibut weighing more than a small pond fishing boat.
Then SS is pulling in fresh dungeness crab.
....I am ready to move.
Buck36, not to hurt your feeling but fresh sockeye and king salmon was on the menu yesterday, shrimp tomorrow!
Man I'm with Buck...its time to move, I wouldn't know what a body of water is if I saw it!
But then again we get brisket for 87 cents a pound can't complain about that....and ya know seafood is very good with mesquite! ;D
C
SS,
Information like that could make Smoking Duck not giggle anymore.
All good fun. Lots of trade offs involved with living on a small island in a large state. We like it though and yes, fresh seafood is not a problem. Saw Kummocks pictures too. Nice, we try to put some halibut in the freezer every year, along with the salmon that is. Looking at the water as I write this, buoys on the crab pots in view, eagle squawking and would not be unheard of to see of of our hormone driven scaled friends jump out to take a look at what I am doing to his brother. Getting ready to fire that smoker up, nice finish to a good day!
It's about 3300 miles as the crow flies. I ain't never seen a crow fly that far.
to drive... ~5162 miles ~ 3days 19 hours 40 minutes, 59 seconds - without a stop.... 245 gallons of diesel fuel...$1177. thats one way....
UGH!
F R E S H Dungeness.... Hmmm.....
I have not tried crab but would be afraid a small dab of smoke would do it... may be too strong ??? let us know - may be a new treat I was just to scare to try. :D
FLBentRider, Nice message, Math Major? Don't know what to say, we make the trip south to see family and friends from time to time, it's a long way, it's expensive, it's time consuming on the other hand I can't remember ever sending anybody home unhappy or fishless.....
To play devil's advocate though, in the words of a friend;
"I used to tell everybody about my trips to Alaska, how much fun we had, how many fish we caught, how many animals we saw close up and unafraid, how unspoiled and beautiful we found it. Then I started to think about that, I don't tell anybody anymore."
It's worth the trip.
Quote from: stillsmoking on July 05, 2008, 04:55:26 PM
FLBentRider, Nice message, Math Major?
No Math degree, and no Holiday Inn Express either... ;D ;D ;D just mapsource and Excel...
Alaska is one of those places on our "list"
We made it to the Grand Canyon last winter.. We may try for AK next summer.
How did the crab turn out ?
I didn't mean to hijack the thread....
Quote from: Buck36 on July 05, 2008, 04:10:50 PM
SS,
Information like that could make Smoking Duck not giggle anymore.
Buck,
You are so right, my friend. It makes me cry like a schoolgirl that just lost her pudding :'(
Real quick, it worked! Will post more tomorrow with more details and will try to include a picture. FL Bentrider, if you make it, stop by and we'll do a couple fresh ones together!
Can't wait to hear more details on the crab smoke!
Another Alaskan - cool! I'm up in Soldotna on the Kenai River. We don't have many sockeye yet, but the push should start in the next week or so. Can't wait! And it's a pink year too!
Got a 35 lb king a couple of weeks ago and my buddy called it bait. Ha! He got a 60 lb'er the day before. I smoked mine and gave it all away at our daughter's wedding - more fun than eating it myself!
Gotta say the SS has the advantage over me here in Homer.....we aren't allowed to catch shrimp or dungies in the Bay. They're there, just not plentiful enough to reopen for sport fishing, according to authorities, (whoever THEY are?!?!?! We have more marine naturalist organizations here than most town have stoplights! :-\ ). Used to be that we'd throw shrimp AND crab pots out on the way out to the fishing grounds, do our fishing (actually CATCHING! ;), then return and pull the pots for a big feast on the beach...all we brought with us for the trip was the cooking pots and butter, LOTS of butter! Can't do that anymore, although they just opened the tanner crab fishery in the Bay after several years of closure......
BTW, SS...which SE town? I used to live in Sitka, but traveled all over down there, courtesy of the USCG. Love the places/people, but got a little soggy at times?!?!?
Good morning my fellow Alaskans! I am in Petersburg and yes it is a little soggy out but I never held up all that well under the sun anyhow. Five kinds of salmon, halibut, rockfish, Dungeness, Tanner, King crab and shrimp seem to somehow make up for that lack of sun. Would love to see Homer and Soldotna, maybe we could do a traveling smoke show and hit the whole damn state? A night here and a night there, stop long enough to smoke whatever is fresh!
Sockeyes just starting here and the King fishery was just closed. Lots of good crab and shrimp around though and you know those Humpies and Coho's are coming.
Kummok,have tried your smoked salmon recipe, nice stuff. Of course I had to tweak it some more. Have really enjoyed reading posts from both of you. Will send more on the crab later.
Ok, here are some more details on the great crab experiment. Soaked the crab in the brine I mentioned above for about an hour while I heated the smoker up. Got the smoker up about 210 and put the crab in. The crab was cleaned, top shell, guts, lungs, etc. gone, fur and shell scrubbed, crab left whole otherwise. Nice fit on the rack with the legs spread out, claws to the back, crab in the upright, flat on it's belly position. Smoked for about 1/2 an hour, started with Hickory. Added scallops which had been marinating for 1/2 an hour. Crab starting to turn red and looking yummy. A little breezy today and in the 50's, temp on the smoker down below 200, slowly builds to 200. Turned the crab over on it's top after 20 more minutes, liquid drains from shell and meat. Pulled the scallops after 1/2 an hour. I am a hero, wife loves me, dog wags his tail, child suspicious. Crab looking red, pull it out, debate whether to cool it before eating or just dig in. Crab is beautiful, take pictures. Finish Scallops, eat piping warm crab. We are very full from scallops so don't eat much but this is good crab! We are used to good, fresh Dungie, I throw them in the pot still wriggling, plunge them into ice water when done cooking, then clean them, rinse them down and eat them. I prefer my crab cold but this warm smoked crab may make a believer out of me. Started with Hickory finished off with Apple, smoke the whole time, it was not too much.
Good stuff;
The marinade worked well on the crab, no doubt will tweak but this was a good flavor with the crab.
PRETTY! Nice to look at as well as eat
Took a shot and it worked out.
Hearing from you all
Will change;
Truthfully the crab was overcooked, not in a bad, dry rubbery way, just meat stuck to the shell here and there, it was still good.
I was concerned about undercooking, it was breezy, door open often, not the temp I wanted, ok lots of excuses. Bottom line I will experiment more, this was worth doing. Would like to hear about other types of crab if anybody tries anything.
I took a couple pictures but we are having technical problems. Will post later if I can. This was fun, glad I did it, will do it again soon. The scallops were good too, the wife really liked them, I was pretty focused on the crab but enjoyed the scallops too, think I will spritz with some lime juice next time as I put them in the smoker.
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo....
I think I shorted out the touchpad on my laptop...
That sounds D E L I C I O U S!!
ss, super post. Thanks for the results. Now to score some crab :'(
I don't think I've seen whole crab here in my neck of the woods, might have to check one of the asian markets...Anywho would snow crab leg clusters work out for me?
C
I am sure the crab clusters would work, just not as well as the fresh, whole thing. Like I said we are probably spoiled anything but fresh tastes fishy to me. Watch the smoke times, I went too far. Check at half an hour or so. Just finished up the cold leftover crab from last night. Yup it was worth it!
Holy Cow...SS...I'm doing it....thanks for that post....I've been wallowing in sausage all weekend and the crab sounds esquisite...
Gotta try whole crabs for the next seafood fest!!! Very kool indeed...:)
Great La Quinta, would love to know how it turns out for you. I will be fine tuning after this first try. What kind of sausage?
Andouille, linguica, breakfast and just a normal joe smoked. I love making sausage!! Cracks me up. :)
Dang! I am impressed. Haven't done much sausage for the last year but starting to feel an itch. Used to make some killer rabbit sausage but took to using turkey/pork mixture when rabbit became hard to find. Made a nice breakfast sausage.
Round 2 on the crab. Got a nice Dungie yesterday afternoon, scrubbed, cleaned and brined as above. Put in the smoker at about 220, dropped down to the 205-210 range for 45 minutes of apple smoke. Tried one leg at 30 minutes and decided to leave the crab in for 10 more. Total time 40 minutes, just about perfect. We really enjoyed this crab, much easier to get out of the shell in recognizable pieces of crab meat. Had some nice homemade garlic bread and sliced zucchini breaded and cooked in the oven with it all. Great dinner, will probably be doing another crab tonight and often in the future!
It has been a while since I posted this but if anybody is interested in what the finished product looked like here it is.
(http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo170/twolanes1/firsttry147crabtop.jpg)