Welcome to Blue Crab info

Learn all about this tasty crustacean and even find companies, recipes and resources where you can purchase whole live or order steamed hard crabs, lump crab meat, and crab cakes locally or buy maryland blue crabs online.

The blue crab exists from Cape Cod to South America but is in greatest numbers from Maryland through Texas.

The blue crab's scientific name translates as a "beautiful swimmer that is savory." Blue crab meat sometimes is compared to the sweetness of lobster meat; the flavor best appreciated by cracking and eating steamed hardshells or feasting on softshells. Crab is prepared in restaurant and home kitchens in many different ways, boiled, fried, steamed or sauteed, or as crab cakes, or in crab soup and crab dip.

Most blue crabs found in local markets and restaurants will come from the Chesapeake Bay area of Maryland and Virginia, which are famous for its blue crabs. Other key suppliers of blue crab ship from North Carolina, Louisiana, Florida and Texas. The large male crabs are known as 'jimmies', mature females as 'sooks' and the immature female crabs are known as 'sallies'.

• Maryland blue crab
This Chesapeake Bay crustacean is probably the most enduring symbol of Maryland. Mature blue crabs average five to seven inches across. They are most plentiful late spring through late fall, although crab meat is available in many forms year round. The blue crab is best described by its scientific name, Callinectes sapidus, which means beautiful swimmer that is savory

• Soft Shell blue crabs are found on the East Coast from New Jersey to Florida and on the Gulf Coast to Texas. Over 80% of the soft shell blue crabs come from the Chesapeake Bay. Soft shell crabs are blue crabs that have shed their hard outer shell in order to grow. This process, known as molting, occurs 18 to 23 times during the lifetime of the crab as it matures and outgrows each hard shell.

• Blue crab recipes
• Crab Cobb Salad
• Maryland Blue Crab Cake Panini
• Pan fried soft shell blue crabs
• Maryland Blue Crab File Okra Gumbo

Get great recipes and even order maryland whole live, steamed, crab cakes and lump crab meat.
Find sources to buy online.

More crab and natural resources:
Maryland Department of Natural Resources ... http://www.dnr.state.md.us