Each year, from mid-October to mid-May, stone crab season makes it a little more bearable to live in South Florida.
For those of you not familiar with stone crabs, they are harvested locally and you only eat the claws. Fishermen only remove one claw from the crab, which is put back into the ocean where it regenerates the lost claw. They are one of those of those foods where you wonder who found that out. (Like snails – who is the guy who saw a slug in a shell leaving an ooze path in his garden and said, “Hey, I bet that would taste good dipped in butter!” Ewwwww.)
Anyway…the stone crab was made famous by Joe’s Stone Crab, a restaurant and institution on Miami Beach. They are served alongside a spicy mustard sauce for dipping.
We are fortunate to have a really fantastic Farmer’s Market in our city every year from January to March where there is a local fish vendor who sells fresh stone crabs for a pretty great price.
Almost every weekend during the market we treat ourselves to this (increasingly more expensive) delicacy for Saturday dinners. I make the mustard sauce while D cracks the crabs with a mallet. Teamwork! I almost add an extra 1/4 tsp. mustard for a kick to the sauce. You could also use this as a sandwich spread, or dipping sauce for other cooked seafood until you get your hands on some stone crabs.
Joe’s Stone Crab Mustard Sauce
Yield: about 1 cup
1 Tbsp. Coleman’s dry mustard, or to taste
1 cup mayonnaise
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. A-1 steak sauce
2 Tbsp. heavy cream
2 Tbsp.milk
salt to taste
1. Place the mustard in a small mixing bowl.
2. Whisk in the mayonnaise, Worcestershire sauce, A-1 Sauce, cream and a pinch of salt. Mix until well blended and creamy. (If you like a little more bite to your sauce, whisk in up to 1/2 tsp. more dry mustard until well blended.)
3. Chill the sauce, covered, until serving.
Source: I found this years ago online from the restaurant’s “Eat at Joe’s Cookbook.” Many sources can be found online if you google for it.
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