Where are all the fresh soft shell crabs ???!!!!
 

visited numerous stores today including the big local chains in Chicago, Jewel & Dominicks, the latter used to have them I really never shop at Jewel. No one had them, nor had any plans to get any in.

Finally found them at a store I never go to and purchased the last 10 they had. Seafood man said they had ordered 12 dozen which arrived yesterday and these were the last 10, so clearly there is a demand.

It is the season, I'm amazed so few places carry fresh soft shell crabs.

Anyone else having a tough time finding them?

When exactly is the season? I had them about 6-8 weeks ago in a Thai restaurant. I assumed they were fresh, but I suppose they're sold frozen as well? We don't see them in local stores here that I'm aware of but a new seafood shop just opened. I may have to visit.

IIRC, mid May through end of August.

BTW, they came out great. I LIGHTLY dusted with some flour, black pepper, salt. Sauteed in some olive oil, 3-4 minutes per side, place on paper towel. Squeeze the juice of one lemon into the remains in the pan to deglaze, creates a very simple lemon sauce. Plate crabs, pour lemon sauce over crabs as desired and serve. Delicious.

SW:

Looks like we had the same teacher for the preparation of SSC. I'm having serious withdrawls. I just called our local speciality meat/fish store in Bloomington (IN) and they told me there seems to be a serious shortage (hopefully temporary) of the critters.

Here's a NOAA study from last year:

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories..._bluecrab.html

A friend of mine who has a boat and does some crabbing says he sees some commercial crabbers doing destructive and harmful harvesting.

Wirelessly posted (Palm TX: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 98; PalmSource/Palm-D050; Blazer/4.3) 16;320x448)

overfishing...,?

I saw four at my local Whole Foods last week. I should have bought them as I have not seen any more.

That and habitat destruction, in all likelihood.

thanks for that link YVR Cockroach^

went shopping today at a few new places, two seafood guys today said that the early summer season is over and that there will be another in the fall. That being said there were many places that have said they get them in but they just don't sell that fast and then spoil, so they stop carrying them.

First, VA and MD greatly reduced the crab allotment for 2009.

The commercial way of generating softshell crabs:
the crabs that will molt in the next few days are put in separate holding pens, and separated from each other.
http://www.bluecrab.info/redsign.htm
shows which crabs to put in the pens.

after molt, the crabs are refrigerated, and shipped through channels to final destination. properly handled, they arrive in the kitchen live.(i guess dead is spoiled).

the only "season" is that molting starts in mid/late May. molting takes place every 10-20 or so days.

the shortage in soft shell crabs is probably due to the shortage on the Chesapeake.

it is by the way illegal for private parties to hold crabs for molting.

Along the Gulf Coast, the "crop" of soft shell crabs (live crab caught and held for molting in most cases) barely meets the requirements of upscale seafood resturants anda few "high end" retailers. Anybody with soft shells is likely to attempt to "protect" availability for his regualar repeat customers rather than sell to retailers or individual customers.

Tuesday night we called about 10 restaurants in Philly to see if they had soft shells. No one had them. So we decided to go to The Palm and soft shell crabs were the nightly special. I couldn't believe my good fortune. They were sauteed in butter and a little garlic and were the most delicious I ever had....so crispy and meaty.

Bobette

I recommend an outfit out of Maryland called Harborhouse Crabs. http://www.ilovecrabs.com/

Though not "live", their jumbo frozen softshells are amazing. As a Maryland native, I'd attest to their quality and freshness.

starting last wed, the dc area supermarket chains have backfin crab meat on sale. it is claimed to be maryland, virginia, or Chesapeake bay crab meat(i don't think they can fudge that).

from the crab cakes that we made, it certainly seems authentic.

just amazing, such a limited quantity item, and being sold at discount.

I had some this past Monday for lunch at a place just off Arthur Avenue in the Bronx. They were stunning.