Crab Boil was a success! Follow-up on how to do it.

[weddingplanner]

I know that one poster said she would never do it even after having family in the crab business.

I don't want to debate what she said. But, man am I so glad I didn't let the post scare me off.

It was fabulous! We have done crawfish in the past. But, crabs sounded so much better. I ordered them direct from a place on the East coast. They arrived over night in cold packs. We left them in the packs til cooking time.

I rented a large boiler. All I had to do (or my hubby) was get the water boiling. Then with the basket in the steamer we stacked crab, seasoning, crab, seasoning. You get the picture. Then put the lid on top and left it sitting there for about 20 minutes.

Voila!

Done. I rented butter warmers, crackers and I brought out sharp knives. Mallets were such a waste of time. The crackers and cocktail forks were just fine.

I will do it just like this for years to come. The only thing was prep time on this party. Timing of delivery of crabs and getting the water boiling and ready. Clean up was a snap and it was plain fun!

I highly recommed this party to anyone out there with love for crabs.

[shannonmbp]

I know that one poster said she would never do it even after having family in the crab business.

I don't want to debate what she said. But, man am I so glad I didn't let the post scare me off.

It was fabulous! We have done crawfish in the past. But, crabs sounded so much better. I ordered them direct from a place on the East coast. They arrived over night in cold packs. We left them in the packs til cooking time.

I rented a large boiler. All I had to do (or my hubby) was get the water boiling. Then with the basket in the steamer we stacked crab, seasoning, crab, seasoning. You get the picture. Then put the lid on top and left it sitting there for about 20 minutes.

Voila!

Done. I rented butter warmers, crackers and I brought out sharp knives. Mallets were such a waste of time. The crackers and cocktail forks were just fine.

I will do it just like this for years to come. The only thing was prep time on this party. Timing of delivery of crabs and getting the water boiling and ready. Clean up was a snap and it was plain fun!

I highly recommed this party to anyone out there with love for crabs.

Mmmm! That sounds delicious! So glad it worked out.

[Snapdragon]

I totally agree with everything you said with the exeception of the mallet situation! I say this only because at our family crab boils there are some children there (don't look at me); we set up a low table with about 5 layers of newpaper and 1 layer of brown paper stapled to the underside of the table. we give the kids the small crabs legs and some of the emplty body shells and just let them have at it. We have aprons and caps on them and the boys especially get into it. They would pound away on the crab parts all night it they could. Don't worry, we feed them, they don't have to eat crab shell dust!

[moon]

I am so happy your crab boil turned out well!

I had one about the same time and mine was great! We are on the east coast
so when DH went to get the crabs the folks at the crab house steamed them.
Usually we steam them at home....this was really nice to have them done for us.

I have had crab boils for years and always have a great time.
We usually bury the crab shells in our flower beds to avoid smelly
trash.It's great fertilizer for the plants!