Oh the woe of a short season for Dungeness!!
There are definite ‘camps’ for the type of crab one likes. I’m originally from the west coast where during season, we’d buy fresh off the boat Dungeness for LESS THAN $1.50 a pound and they were 2+ pounders. Now you are lucky if you can buy a 1-1/2 pounder for $7+. Ah, the memories of fundraising crab feeds. Bring your own lemons and Best Foods mayo.
I hardly had any to freeze and put away for later this year. I saved claws and some bodies from 4 crabs for cioppino and crab quiche for this summer.
I have bought Phillips, it isn’t Dungeness, but ‘southeastern crab’. When it was realitively inexpensive (this was years ago at Costco). I bought it as backup for when I needed crab for a dish, out of season. It did what I needed it to do, but barely. I had two containers that I froze. One is still in there, frozen.
Giovanni’s in Morro Bay, CA has crabs, crab meat and other delicacies, but you pay a premium price and an even bigger premium shipping cost. I bought freshly frozen some abalone one Christmas from them. Oh my! It was a Christmas present to the former ab diver who who lives in the rockies. Giovanni’s did an excellent job of getting the ab to me in 24 hours, pre-pandemic.
I have seen ’ mock crab’ dishes made from celeriac and even one that washed canned tuna in water and soaked that mess in clam juice and then drained it. Saw the recipe, but never made it.
Best wishes for your quest.
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