Soft shell crabs + milk - why?
May 12, 2005 1:09 PM   Subscribe

Why are you supposed to soak soft shell crabs in milk before cooking them? Most of the recipes I've found call for this, but none say why. None of the cookbooks I've consulting (including On Food and Cooking and the CIA Professional Chef) have an answer.
posted by Caviar to Food & Drink (14 answers total)
 
Usually it's to help remove some of the "fishyness". But's it's also often used for providing some moisture for a breading of some kind to stick to.
posted by Witty at 1:12 PM on May 12, 2005


I know soaking fish in milk before cooking will alleviate some of the fishy smell if it's initially present. Perhaps soft shell crabs have an unpleasant odor upon cooking?
posted by Constant Reader at 1:13 PM on May 12, 2005


From a Cajun cookbook I got outside of Lake Charles, LA: "Soak in buttermilk and drain to remove odor" and help get rid of the "gamey" taste. Also works with meats like squid and frogs legs.

In another part of the cookbook it says, "milk tenderises pork" (?)
posted by fourstar at 2:03 PM on May 12, 2005


Response by poster: Well, there was a mild oceany smell beforehand, but nothing unpleasant. I suppose I should try one without and see what happens.
posted by Caviar at 3:08 PM on May 12, 2005


I had always soaked softshells for no reason other than it's what my mom had always done. In searching for a new recipe, I read "The Best Recipe"'s (the cookbook by the incredible team of cooks at Cooks Illustrated) testing showed that soaking doesn't sweeten the meat so much as take away the "fresh just out of the water" flavor. I didn't soak any of the crabs I ate last summer and didn't notice a difference. If they're fresh (and who would eat them if they weren't?) I wouldn't bother to soak.
posted by remlapm at 4:41 PM on May 12, 2005


It may illuminate the issue to know that the word "gamey" is just a nice way of saying "almost rotten." I'd say if the meat doesn't need to be tenderized, it doesn't need to be soaked either.
posted by naomi at 6:17 PM on May 12, 2005


One important detail from "The Best Recipe", start with live crabs, otherwise you might as well eat hotdogs (OK, that hotdog bit is my words). Finding live softshells can be an ordeal. They are worth it though.
posted by caddis at 6:41 PM on May 12, 2005


If your seafood smells fishy, it's not as fresh as it should be. Proper fresh seafood smells like the ocean.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 8:28 PM on May 12, 2005


Which part of the ocean? Hopefully not the parts at the mouth of the Mississippi...
posted by five fresh fish at 8:42 PM on May 12, 2005


One other reason might be that it helps remove some of the saltiness-- a lot of recipes (especially British ones) for cooking salted fish like kippers or salt cod require a soaking in milk beforehand to rid the fish of much of its salinity. Even though soft shell crabs aren't pre-salted, perhaps they're salty enough from the ocean water to justify the soak.
posted by yellowcandy at 10:34 PM on May 12, 2005


Tradition. It's typical in the region where blue crabs area available to soak most meat in milk or buttermilk to tenderize and provide a sort of super-mild marinade via the lactic acid. Somehow it got applied to crabs. No good reason for it, though.

Reiterating: Like mollusks, crabs should sold live. There should not be any fishy or strong odor. If there is, they're rotten.
posted by desuetude at 7:25 AM on May 13, 2005


Soft crabs are often sold cleaned or cleaned and frozen. They only stay soft for a short period of time (a mtter of hours) if they are alive ( my mother learned the hard way that they can harden up if frozen without cleaning first). They are soft because they just backed out of their old (too small) shell, and are waiting for their skin to harden into a new shell. I personally like soft crabs just fried in butter, anything else just dilutes that wonderful (and expensive) flavor.
posted by 445supermag at 8:22 AM on May 13, 2005


I checked the "Larousse Gastronomique", the French encyclopedia of cooking, and it has no mention of soft shell crabs at all, is this a new world dish? It does have endless recipes for crayfish.
posted by stbalbach at 8:50 AM on May 13, 2005


Response by poster: According to On Food and Cooking, the only kind of soft shell crabs that are good to eat are the Venetian shore crab and the U.S. blue crab.
posted by Caviar at 11:25 AM on May 13, 2005


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