Stone crab claw ◆

Pince de crabe de pierre

What it is

The crab is never landed: one claw is taken and the animal goes back over the side to regrow it, which is why the season is written in claw sizes rather than tonnages. Florida research has since put mortality among declawed crabs far above what the fishery long assumed, and the rules now turn on exactly how the claw is broken off.

In the kitchen

It reached you already cooked at sea, so heat is the one thing that can spoil it: serve it cold, straight off the ice, with a mustard sauce. Crack it by tapping the flat of the claw with the back of a spoon and lifting the shell away in plates — a mallet drives splinters into the meat.

Goes with

Dijon mustard Lemon Butter Cream Chives Celery Worcestershire sauce

In season alongside

Clam Surf clam Mantis shrimp Razor clam Spider crab Abalone

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