12-15 medium-sized live blue crabs
1 quart tap water
4 strips bacon
2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 medium-sized onion, diced
6-8 medium-sized potatoes, washed and peeled
Remove all traces of mud from crabs. Pull off back shell and innards.
Set a 10 quart pot on the burner. Lay 4 strips of bacon on the bottom of the pan and fry. Set aside bacon.
To the bacon grease add 2 tablespoons of flour. Brown the flour in the grease, then add 1 quart of water to the pot. Add the diced onion, the cleaned crabs, and the salt and pepper. Cook over medium heat for 25 minutes, then add potatoes. When potatoes are cooked through, remove the stew from the heat and serve hot.
For hearty crab eaters, allow 4 crabs per serving.
This is a traditional watermen’s meal, relished for its flavor and the respite it affords wives for picking crab meat. The eater, you see, does his own crab meat picking. There is no etiquette, by the way, to the eating. Just dig in.