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To Boil Crabs, Lobsters, and Cray Fish

This dish is boiled crabs, lobsters, and crayfish in salted water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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To Boil Crabs, Lobsters, and Cray Fish

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Bring a large pot of water to a vigorous boil.

  2. Add a handful or two of coarse sea salt to the boiling water.

  3. Carefully plunge the crab or lobster into the boiling water.

  4. Boil the large crab or lobster for about 15-20 minutes, adjusting time based on size.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The step that matters

Carefully plunge the crab or lobster into the boiling water. Dropping a live crustacean into already vigorously boiling water keeps the water temperature high and cooks the shell and meat evenly, rather than letting the animal heat slowly as the water warms.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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