Maryland Steamed Blue Crabs
Live Chesapeake blue crabs steamed over beer and vinegar under a thick crust of crab seasoning, with corn and a newspaper-covered table.
- Full Meals
- Cast iron / Dutch oven
- Seafood
- Dinner
- 75 min total
- Serves 6
Ingredients
Ingredients for servings
Enter a number of at least ½, in steps of ½.
Original recipe serves 6. Ingredient amounts adjust automatically. Cooking times and pan size may need adjusting separately.
Crabs
- 36 live blue crabs, 3 dozen, medium or large, kept cold
Steaming liquid
- 2 cups water
- 2 cans beer, 12 oz each, any light lager
- 1 cup white vinegar
Seasoning
- 3/4 cup Old Bay seasoning, or J.O. No. 2 crab seasoning
- 1/4 cup kosher salt
Corn
- 6 ears corn on the cob, husked, halved
- 4 tbsp butter, melted
At the table
- 1/2 cup white vinegar, for dipping
- 1/2 cup butter, melted, for dipping
- 2 lemons, cut in wedges
Gear
- Large crab pot or stockpot with steamer rack and tight lid
- Outdoor propane burner (recommended)
- Long tongs and heavy gloves
- Mallets and paring knives
- Newspaper or brown kraft paper
Some gear links may be affiliate links. Disclosure.
Steps
Step 1: Keep the crabs cold in a cooler with ice packs (not sitting in water) until cooking. Throw away any that are dead or not moving before they go in the pot.
Step 2: Mix the Old Bay and kosher salt in a bowl.
Step 3: Pour the water, beer and vinegar into a large crab pot or stockpot fitted with a raised steamer rack. The liquid should stay below the rack. Bring it to a hard boil over high heat (an outdoor propane burner is easiest).
Step 4: Using long tongs, layer the crabs on the rack, sprinkling a heavy coat of the seasoning mix over each layer. Put a lid on tight.
Step 5: Steam 20 to 25 minutes for 3 dozen (start the clock once steam pours out of the lid). They're done when every shell is bright orange-red all over. Bigger batches take up to 30 minutes.
Step 6: While the crabs steam, boil or steam the corn 6 to 8 minutes and brush with butter and a pinch of Old Bay.
Step 7: Cover a big table with newspaper or brown paper. Dump the crabs right in the middle. Set out mallets, knives, paper towels, vinegar, melted butter and lemons.
Step 8: TO PICK: Pull off the claws. Flip the crab and pry off the apron (the tab on the belly). Lift off the top shell. Scrape away the gills (the spongy 'devil fingers') and guts. Snap the body in half and pick the meat out of each chamber. Crack the claws with a mallet or knife handle.
Game plan
Crab feast for 6 at 5:00 PM:
- Day before: Call a local crab shop and order 3 dozen (more if your crew are serious eaters). Buy corn, beer, paper and a cooler of drinks.
- 2:00 PM: Pick up the crabs. Keep them cold and dry in a cooler, lid cracked so they can breathe.
- 3:30 PM: Make potato salad or coleslaw and chill. Cover the table.
- 4:15 PM: Fire up the burner and bring the pot to a boil.
- 4:25 PM: Crabs in. Corn water on.
- 4:50 PM: Crabs out. Corn out.
- 5:00 PM: Dump the crabs on the table and settle in. A good crab feast lasts hours.
Swaps
- Seasoning: J.O. No. 2 is what many Maryland crab houses use. Old Bay is easier to find.
- Liquid: All water and vinegar if you’d rather skip the beer.
- Sides: Potato salad, coleslaw, hush puppies, steamed shrimp.
Tips
- Blue crabs are best roughly May through October, with the heaviest crabs in late summer and fall.
- Crabs are sold by the dozen or the bushel. A bushel is roughly 5 to 7 dozen depending on size.
- Some folks pick through a dozen in the time others finish three. Plan on 4 to 6 per person for casual eaters, more for experts.
The story
HAM Cooking. Let’s fire it up.
Where I’m from, nobody “has crabs for dinner.” You go to a crab feast. It’s an event. There’s a table covered in newspaper, a pile of bright red crabs in the middle, mallets flying, and nobody’s in a hurry to go anywhere. You will be picking Old Bay out from under your fingernails for days. That’s how you know it was a good one.
Down here we steam them, we don’t boil them, and there’s a good reason. Boiling washes the seasoning off and waterlogs the meat. Steaming over beer and vinegar cooks the crabs gently and lets that thick crust of seasoning cake onto the shells, so it ends up on your fingers and in every bite. The vinegar also adds a little tang that cuts through the richness.
It takes some practice to pick a crab clean. The first few take forever. By the end of the afternoon you’ll be fast and you’ll have a story about the one that pinched you. Everybody has one.
HAM out.
Related recipes
AI illustrationCast iron / Dutch ovenDinnerFull MealsLow Country Shrimp Boil
Shell-on shrimp, smoked sausage, red potatoes and corn boiled in one big seasoned pot, then dumped straight onto a paper-covered table.
60 min · serves 8 · Seafood
AI illustrationCast iron / Dutch ovenDinnerFull MealsSouthern Maryland Stuffed Ham
The St. Mary's County holiday classic: corned ham packed with spicy kale, cabbage and onion, wrapped in cloth, simmered for hours and served cold.
330 min · serves 20 · Pork
AI illustrationAir fryerDinnerAir FryerAir Fryer Cornmeal Catfish
Catfish fillets soaked in hot-sauce buttermilk and coated in seasoned cornmeal, air fried crispy and served with lemon and tartar sauce.
40 min · serves 4 · Seafood
Cooked this? Tell us how it went.
Loading reviews…