Racer Crabs - The First Taste

Last weekend at the Tuna Harbor Dockside Market we picked up some racer crabs for $5.00 per pound.  Great deal as far as I'm concerned.  However when I got home I couldn't find any information on racer crabs - anywhere.  At first, I thought it might be a variety of dungeonous crab - but this week I asked the vendor if this was a species of dungenous and he advised it wasn't but could only tell me that a famous fish market north of Santa Barbara that sold these under another name.  So for the time being, all I really know about this crab is that it is found close to Santa Barbara in deep water and is closely related to a snow crab (according to the fishermen I bought this from).

Racer crabs are clean and feisty - the husband/wife team we bought from took precautions to keep appendages out of the way of the pincers, which are very sharp (as I learned firsthand later, slicing my thumb deeply while manually trying to crack the shell).  We bought four pounds of crabs, which totaled seven crabs.  As soon as we got home from the market, we threw the crabs in the fridge.  The next morning, I threw the crabs in a steam bath for ten minutes (treating them like blue crab), which was definitely enough time - but probably a hair too long.  

It took about an hour to pick the two crabs (again, she is an expert crab picker) - and we came away with just under a pound of meat, which put us at just under $23 per pound for actual meat (better than box crabs).  The cooked meat, without accoutrement, is sweet and satisfying - on par with snow crab.  The shells were perfect for making a crab stock, which we then used to make an amazing crab bisque.  Picking the meat was fairly comparable to picking blue crabs, a time consuming love afair.  All in all, our first experience with racer crabs was amazing.  I am at a loss as to why these crabs are not more widely available.  Abundant, relatively easy to catch (so we are told) and tasty.

If you have a positive identification on this crab - please let me know.  I'd love to learn more about the fishery and sustainability.