What is so special about Louisiana Crabs?
We had a big crab-fest last weekend and I was charged with buying the bushel. I went to a local wholesaler and was quoted $85 for a bushel of #2 males from North Carolina and $175 for a bushel of #1 males from Louisiana. I thought to myself, "Those Louisiana crabs must be some damn good crabs!"
I couldn't buy the crabs right then and there since it was mid-morning and we weren't going to be cooking them until late afternoon and we had nowhere to safely store them all day (I was told they need to stay at around 50-55 degrees). The guy told me that they close at 2:00 so I returned at 1:30. Imagine my surprise when I spoke with someone else and they quoted me only $55 for the #2s! (they had sold out of the #1s by then).
We were happy enough with the #2s from NC, but I'm still wondering what (if anything) was so special about those Louisiana crabs?
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I live on the Texas Gulf Coast and the largest males always bring the highest price, usually quite a bit more than the smaller ones. Also, due to high demand in Maryland, many of the biggest ones end up there, higher demand, higher prices. From my experience, some of the smaller males can actually have more meat than a larger one. I usually look for the freshest ones and disregard size. I suspect the discount on the #2's was the market was trying to get rid of them as they were closing.
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