It's Stone Crab Season!

Florida Grillin Girl

Don't hate me because I live here! Fishless, this means you!

Stone Crab season is here so I ran out to buy some. The first place was $65 per lb. for jumbo. Yikes!!

Next place was better.



I got the jumbo. Just because. Yea, I know, I'm crazy.



Next, I went to Frenchys Stone Crab festival on Clearwater beach. Mediums were $24, best prices are at the festival.


Come on down to Florida and get some. The season lasts til May 15.

lkapigian

They look delicious 

JohnfromKentucky

Awesome! We are heading to Ft Lauderdale this Thursday for 10 days of relaxation. Going to have to get some of these when we are down there.

We first had stone crab in 2010 in Clearwater at Crabby Bills


We also ate at Frenchy's

dmchicago

Love ‘em. Had some at Island Grill in Clearwater a couple of weeks ago. Bought some here last week. $60/lb this plate was around $110. 

I make the Joe’s Stone Crab mustard sauce. 

My wife is from the Clearwater area and we are big fans of Frenchys  

FLgrillinGirl

@dmchicago - I usually make the Joe's stone crab mustard, too. This was my purchase:

lousubcap

Well, I did check out ordering and shipping to Fly Over Country but I need to reflect on this as the shipping (gotta be overnight) is quite a hill to climb.
However, @Florida Grillin Girl -if I were to order and get them shipped do you have any source recommendations?  BTW-tried two different browsers and I cannot get to Frenchy's on-line order site.  Thanks in advance, I think  .
Edit-I walked back from this cliff last year...

JohnfromKentucky

lousubcap said:

Well, I did check out ordering and shipping to Fly Over Country but I need to reflect on this as the shipping (gotta be overnight) is quite a hill to climb.
However, @Florida Grillin Girl -if I were to order and get them shipped do you have any source recommendations?  BTW-tried two different browsers and I cannot get to Frenchy's on-line order site.  Thanks in advance, I think  .
Edit-I walked back from this cliff last year...

I'll help you towards that cliff....

Did you try calling them?  

ColbyLang

Can’t believe y’all eat em cold….

fishlessman

lousubcap said:

Well, I did check out ordering and shipping to Fly Over Country but I need to reflect on this as the shipping (gotta be overnight) is quite a hill to climb.
However, @Florida Grillin Girl -if I were to order and get them shipped do you have any source recommendations?  BTW-tried two different browsers and I cannot get to Frenchy's on-line order site.  Thanks in advance, I think  .
Edit-I walked back from this cliff last year...

If you are discrete, it's out of season, and you dig a hole before the cook, a couple hundred will buy you enough  for sgh to eat for a week in the outer islands Bahamas. Don't get caught, it's like drug trafficking down there. I bought a hundred dollars worth and fed twelve about ten or so years ago.

lousubcap

No call as I'm old but totally in with the full green light buy, ship and receive product experience.  The fewer obstacles, the better.  A buy, build, install analogy-turn key for the win.  Let's see how this will play.  

fishlessman

lousubcap said:

No call as I'm old but totally in with the full green light buy, ship and receive product experience.  The fewer obstacles, the better.  A buy, build, install analogy-turn key for the win.  Let's see how this will play.  

It's the only crab I would go out of my way for. Better than a Maine lobster but I've been spoiled with those

fishlessman

ColbyLang said:

Can’t believe y’all eat em cold….

Have only had them caught and steamed with butter. Here though they are cooked and flash frozen

lousubcap

@fishlessman - I appreciate your comment as I know the Maine lobster enjoyment, (locally and in Flyover Country) and I may be biased given the access challenge here.  If that's the level of texture and flavour (nod) I await @Florida Grillin Girl 's input.  
And for obvious reasons, the only way I would get them is cooked and flash frozen.   Time will tell.

TechsasJim

looks like it’s time for a  Truluck’s run.  

Florida Grillin Girl

@lousubcap - this is where I bought them... it says they ship. https://www.facebook.com/frenchysstonecrab/

fishlessman

lousubcap said:

@fishlessman - I appreciate your comment as I know the Maine lobster enjoyment, (locally and in Flyover Country) and I may be biased given the access challenge here.  If that's the level of texture and flavour (nod) I await @Florida Grillin Girl 's input.  
And for obvious reasons, the only way I would get them is cooked and flash frozen.   Time will tell.

I would follow her guidence to a T.  She has been aggravating me with this annual post for maybe decades now😁

Florida Grillin Girl

@ColbyLang - the ones I bought at Frenchy's market were cold. The ones at the festival I ordered hot. I like them both ways, and at home I usually heat them up on the BGE.

Florida Grillin Girl

@fishlessman - "Don't hate me because I live here! Fishless, this means you!"
You were mentioned in my first sentence for a reason! Ha Ha! Yea, and it hasn't been decades, only a few short years.

Legume

@crablessman

buzd504

ColbyLang said:

Can’t believe y’all eat em cold….

I quick steam them or dunk them in boiling water (with a little crab boil) to heat them up.

I like them, but I'm not paying $50/lb for them.  I wonder what Joe Patti's is getting for them since I'm in Pensacola for a while.

Thatgrimguy

buzd504 said:

ColbyLang said:

Can’t believe y’all eat em cold….

I quick steam them or dunk them in boiling water (with a little crab boil) to heat them up.

I like them, but I'm not paying $50/lb for them.  I wonder what Joe Patti's is getting for them since I'm in Pensacola for a while.

I'm sure you already know this, but Pensacola is home to the best butcher between atlanta and houston IMO. It's called The Butcher Shoppe. (I love Jo Patti's, havent' been there in years)

lousubcap

Just now pulled the trigger on three pounds of Frenchy's medium claw stone crab.  A new eating experience here and hopefully as enjoyable as anticipated.  Delivery next week and a thanksgiving eve special.  

Florida Grillin Girl

@lousubcap - that's awesome. I know you will enjoy them. Please let me know how your new experience with stone crabs turns out. Butta or mustard sauce??

lousubcap

I went down the stone claw rabbit hole as posted above.  Arrived today after the overnight freight hosing.  Had to enjoy this evening.  Cold with mustard sauce.  Great tasting and glad I have had them.  A bit different taste profile than a lobster claw.  I will say that once you roll in the shipping charges, they lack that wow factor.  

They don't elevate the taste/flavour (nod)/texture profile the way an A5 Japanese wagyu steak does over any other steak cut I have had including SRF gold and one-off  Lobel's ribeye.  
I will seek them out when in Florida but not the overnight to Fly Over Country.  FWIW-
Edit to insert the pic.

fishlessman

Have only had illegal ones caught that day and still hot. Enough to feed ten for a hundey. Like lobster, sweet approaching hard shell, grainy if it passes, not right at soft shell. Not sure if that is right so much with crab

alaskanassasin

Thanks for the honest review @lousubcap. Mom was going to ship some halibut from Alaska to Austin from a friend. She ended up buying her a plane ticket, it was cheaper and more fun all around.

Buckwoody Egger

Love getting these in Cedar Key, FL.  Never tried warm!  May try a few that way next time, thanks for sharing that option.   

Cedar Key clams— love em local and one day saw them here in an Atlanta Costco for the same price.  Great but still not the same sunset in the background. 

Langner91

Never eat crab in months that have an R.

That's what I learned in Oregon.  Dungeness in months without an R.

Or, was it in months with an "R"?  

Dang crabs!

Cows are much easier to eat!

Dawgtired

Do y’all have the recipe for Joe’s mustard sauce and do you put it on anything else?

HeavyG

Dawgtired said:

Do y’all have the recipe for Joe’s mustard sauce and do you put it on anything else?

At Joe's, the stone crabs are served cold, already cracked. They come with small metal cups of mustard or melted butter—or both. This is the mustard sauce for which Joe's is famous.

Ingredients

Makes 4 servings

1 tablespoon Colman's dry mustard, or more to taste,

1 cup mayonnaise

2 teaspoons Worcestershire

1 teaspoon A-1 sauce

2 tablespoons light cream

salt

1. Step 1

   Place the mustard in a mixing bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer. Add the mayonnaise and beat for 1 minute.

   Step 2

   Add the Worcestershire, A-1, cream, and a pinch of salt and beat until the mixture is well blended and creamy. If you'd like a little more mustardy bite, whisk in 1/2 teaspoon more dry mustard until well blended. Chill the sauce, covered, until serving.

Reprinted with permission from Eat at Joe's: The Joe's Stone Crab Restaurant Cookbook, Copyright ©November 1993, Jo Ann Bass and Richard Sax, Clarkson Potter

buzd504

Thatgrimguy said:

buzd504 said:

ColbyLang said:

Can’t believe y’all eat em cold….

I quick steam them or dunk them in boiling water (with a little crab boil) to heat them up.

I like them, but I'm not paying $50/lb for them.  I wonder what Joe Patti's is getting for them since I'm in Pensacola for a while.

I'm sure you already know this, but Pensacola is home to the best butcher between atlanta and houston IMO. It's called The Butcher Shoppe. (I love Jo Patti's, havent' been there in years)

I have heard that but I haven't been.  It's on the list.