Crab?

[FLBentRider]

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....

[Smoking Duck]

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  :'(

[stillsmoking]

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!

[aces-n-eights]

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!

[Kummok]

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?!?!?

[stillsmoking]

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.

[stillsmoking]

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.

[FLBentRider]

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo....

I think I shorted out the touchpad on my laptop...

That sounds D E L I C I O U S!!

[West Coast Kansan]

ss, super post.  Thanks for the results.  Now to score some crab  :'(

[westexasmoker]

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

[stillsmoking]

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!

[La Quinta]

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...:)

[stillsmoking]

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?

[La Quinta]

Andouille, linguica, breakfast and just a normal joe smoked. I love making sausage!! Cracks me up. :)

[stillsmoking]

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.