Dungeness crab

Crabe dormeur du Pacifique

What it is

The crab is named for Dungeness, a spit of sand on the Strait of Juan de Fuca where the commercial fishery began in the 1890s. It is run on three letters — sex, size, season — so only mature males above about sixteen centimetres are landed, and every female goes back over the rail whatever the price is doing.

In the kitchen

It reaches you already cooked, so never boil it a second time — warm the sections covered with a spoon of butter for three or four minutes, or serve them cold. The mustard-coloured tomalley under the carapace is the best of the animal: scrape it out and beat it into the mayonnaise.

Goes with

Butter Lemon Chives Tarragon Celery Dijon mustard Avocado Fennel

In season alongside

Gilt-head bream Northern sweet shrimp Nantucket bay scallop Brill Arctic char Clam

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