When Does Crab Season Start in Maryland? A Guide to Crabbing Seasons and Regulations

Every summer, people from near and far flock to Maryland’s coast to get their fill of blue crabs. Here now, the how’s and where’s of crab season.

WHEN TO EAT CRABS

The Maryland crab season starts in April and runs through December. But a lot of what you find in crab houses at the beginning of the season or in the winter comes from North Carolina and Louisiana.

Most of the Maryland crabs that are served in April and early May are ones that stayed north for the winter and dug themselves into the mud. Then, around Memorial Day, the first batch runs out, and crabbers wait for the crabs that are still making their way up the Bay.

People like to eat crabs most and most of the time in June through August. But September and October are the best months to get the biggest, fattest hard crabs at the best prices.

The Maryland soft shell season usually runs mid-May through September. Because they are a delicacy, the best time to eat them is whenever you can get them. However, they are typically the least expensive at the beginning of the season.

Mustard/Tomalley: Found in all crabs, the tomalley, known as mustard in the mid-Atlantic, is the crab’s fat. It can range in color from white to dijon mustard yellow to a greenish color. It is included with most pre-packed crabmeat to enrich its flavor.

Roe: Found in mature female crabs, crab roe is a bright orange color. It gets solid when steamed, and in Chinese food, it’s often used as a topping for tofu or pork and crab soup dumplings.

Jumbo lump: These are the large chunks of meat connected to the swimming fins of the crab. It is favored for its presentation and size, and is accordingly more expensive.

Backfin: Backfin meat comes from the body of the crab and broken chunks of lump. It tends to have a more shredded texture than lump and is less expensive.

Apron: This is the flap on the white underside of a crab, which terminates in a point. They can be used to judge the sex and maturity of the crab.

Jimmy: These are male crabs; the point of the apron is long and narrow. Adults have locking spines that allow them to open and shut their apron for mating. Most people like to eat these because they are big and easier to get because the catch limits are higher.

Sally: Also known as she-crabs, these are adolescent female blue crabs. Their entire apron forms a triangle, and their blue claws are tipped with red. The aprons do not open since they are not ready to mate or carry eggs. Typically these are thrown back due to their small size and reproductive potential.

Sook: A woman blue crab that is fully grown can be recognized by her apron, which is shaped like an upside-down U and ends in a triangle. She also has blue claws tipped with red. Sooks are usually less expensive and end up in the picking houses due to their smaller size. Some say that sooks have sweeter meat than jimmies.

Sponge crab: Sponge crabs are mature females that have fertilized eggs attached to the bottom of their abdomens. In Maryland, these must be thrown back into the water.

This is what a crab looks like as it gets ready to molt and turn into a soft shell crab. It is distinguished by a colored line on its paddling fin.

Size classes: There are no industry standards for crab sizes, so they may vary from vendor to vendor. Most are categorized by the distance from point to point on the top shell and sometimes by sex.

There are two systems of size classification. The first uses numbers, with #1 being the largest, heaviest males, #2 signifying smaller males, and #3 labeling the females and smallest crabs. The other way divides them into four sizes: small, medium, large, and jumbo. Smalls are about four-and-a-half to five inches across, and jumbos are more than six inches across.

Old Bay: The spice served up from the iconic blue and yellow box has become a pop icon. McCormick, the owner of Old Bay, doesn’t publicly disclose all 18 herbs and spices that are in the recipe, but the box lists celery salt, red and black pepper, and paprika. Speculators note the likely ingredients as bay leaves, cloves, allspice (pimento), ginger, mace, cardamom, cinnamon, and paprika. Locals sprinkle it on just about anything, and it’s found in consumables like Baltimore ice cream parlor the Charmery’s Old Bay caramel ice cream, or in Flying Dog Brewery’s Dead Rise Old Bay Summer Ale.

Some people in the area say that McCormick changed the recipe for the spice blend when they bought it from German immigrant Gustav Brunn in 1990. They say that Old Bay hasn’t had the same heat since the change from the original 1939 recipe made by Brunn’s Baltimore Spice Company. But a McCormick spokesperson denies any changes to the recipe since it was purchased.

J. O. Spice: Odds are at a crab house, whats seasoning the crabs is made by J. O. Spice Company, not Old Bay. The company has been around since 1945 and now supplies more than 800 restaurants in the mid-Atlantic. They often make custom blends that vary in how salty and spicy they are. The easiest way to discern if a restaurant is using J. O. is to examine the salt crystals, which are flaky rather than cubical.

A lot of people in Maryland think that apple cider vinegar is one of the best things to put on crabs, along with crab seasoning. Butter is used infrequently, and cocktail sauce is generally considered a big no-no.

WHAT’S SPECIAL ABOUT MARYLAND CRABS?

Blue crabs can be found in waters as far north as Nova Scotia and as far south as Uruguay, but the crustaceans strongest association has always been with Maryland. According to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, approximately 50 percent of the country’s blue crab harvest comes from Maryland waters.

And they are an essential part of the region’s culinary heritage. For chef Spike Gjerde of Baltimore’s Woodberry Kitchen, blue crab is one of the three most important seafoods in Maryland. The other two are oysters and rockfish.

Gjerde was born and raised in Baltimore. He is the first chef from Baltimore to win the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic. Because of the way it grows and the type of estuary we have here, the blue crab is really different from any other crab in the world, he says. “They are superior to any other crab in my opinion. “.

People who want to take it easy might like West Coast Dungeness crabs, which are bigger and easier to eat. Many restaurants use cheaper pasteurized crab from Asia for their dishes. But not all crabs are made equal. Gjerde notes that other species of crab lack the depth of flavor and delicate texture of blue crabs. “The seasons have a lot to do with it,” he says. “The season typically starts around [April] and lasts until the cold weather comes around in November. We have grown to love blue crab more because of its seasonality over the years. This is why it is such an important part of the Chesapeake way of life. “.

According to Steve Vilnit of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Fisheries Services, the main reason Maryland crabs taste better than other types of crab is that they need to hibernate. Maryland crabs also taste better than blue crabs from other waters. Like other animals that go into hibernation, he says, crabs need to store fat to get them through the dormant period. “This gives our crabs a buttery flavor that you won’t find anywhere else,” Vilnit says. “Someone who knows what they’re looking for can tell which ones are from Maryland just by looking at them, but most people will know by taste.” “.

If you want to know if a crab is from Maryland, one way is to look at the fat. The fat is a darker shade of yellow and is often called mustard by people who live there, and that’s one way to tell. of Natural Light Charters, who leads chartered crabbing and fishing trips with his son Frank Jr.

The easiest ways to ensure you’re getting Maryland crabs are first to ask, and second to visit restaurants that are True Blue-certified by the state of Maryland. The certification verifies through the restaurant’s receipts that at least 75 percent of the crabs or crabmeat used during the year came from Maryland.

But as Updike says, “Yes, Maryland crabs do taste better. But even if a blue crab isn’t from Maryland, it’s still going to taste pretty good. “.

Maryland’s blue crab season arrives