Recipe Card: Stone Crab, Smoked

Stone Crab, Smoked

Ingredients: 

• Stone crab claws - 2 pounds is a perfect feast for 2 or 3 diners.

• Butter - 2 sticks.

• Old Bay seasoning - or your seafood seasoning of choice - 1 very heaping tablespoon.

• Lemon - enough for two wedges per plate.

Equipment: 

• A heavy spoon or small meat hammer.

• A smoker, any kind - I use a Camp Chef pellet smoker because it is awesome.

• A cookie cooling rack.

• An aluminum foil pan, minimum 2 inches deep.

• Tongs - unless your fingers can survive contact with hot crab claw shells.

• Single serving size sauce dishes - 1 or 2 per diner.

• Large dinner plates - 1 per diner.

• Dinner fork - optional if you do not feel comfortable finger dipping and eating crab meat.

• A seafood cracking tool - just in case your pre-cooking cracking did not do the job.

• A seafood or crab fork - just in case crab meat refuses to come out with your fingers.

Instructions:

• An hour before use, remove crab claws from the refrigerator, let sit at room temperature.

• Also an hour before, place the sticks of refrigerated butter (not frozen) into an aluminum foil

            pan, cover with Old Bay, let sit at room temperature.

• Use a heavy spoon or small meat hammer to gently crack each claw. Also crack the knuckle

            if it is attached. Do not over crack where small bits of shell scatter. If you see 2 or 3 fractures

            in the shell, you have cracked enough.

• Arrange cracked claws onto a cookie cooling rack. 

• Preheat your smoker to its highest smoke setting. Temperature should not be greater than

            200F, 165-175F is better.

• Place the cookie rack of crab claws on one side of the smoker grill, and aluminum foil pan of

            seasoned butter on the other side. 

• Close the smoker lid and smoke for 15 minutes.

• Lift crab claws and set into seasoned butter bath, gently stirring to coat as you add them.

• Remove cookie rack, slide aluminum foil pan to center of smoker grill.

• Close the smoker lid and cook for 10 minutes.

• Remove from the grill, bring to the counter or table and let rest.

Serving:

• Fill single serving size sauce dishes with seasoned butter from the aluminum pan,

            place on a large dinner plate. Fill another with a dipping sauce if you've chosen to dip

            in more than just butter.

• Place two lemon wedges on the plate.

• Place a desired amount of crab claws on the plate, 6 is what I start with.

• Take your plate to the table and eat!

Suggestions: 

• Lemon pepper - alternatively season with 1/2 tablespoon each of Old Bay and Lemon Pepper

• Dipping sauce alternative, try this mustard dipping sauce