So you have this recipe that calls for crab meat, and you’re looking at the price of fresh crab that’s been cooked and picked out of the shell for customers, and you gulp.
Then you look at the price per pound of the whole crab. Doesn’t seem so bad, but is it worth all that cracking and picking yourself?
Then your eye falls on a bag of surimi, yes, fake crab, 8 ounces for $3 or so. Your guests will never know. Or will they?
That crab meat may cost anywhere from $22 to $32 a pound, and the whole crab maybe $7 to $10 a pound. At Waterfront Fish Market in Everett, owner D.J. Peterson said you can expect about 30 percent to 40 percent of the whole crab weight to be meat, “depending on how thoroughly you clean it out. … I tell customers that if the crab is under two pounds, it’s probably worth it to buy the containers of meat. Over two pounds you start to get a better deal.”
So, surimi is definitely cheaper, by a long shot, but you know where your crab comes from. Where do we get imitation crab?
Well, it does comes from the sea. You start by catching some fairly tasteless whitefish (Alaska pollock is a heavy favorite, and the most sustainable resource, according to the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch).
After cleaning, boning, skinning and slicing, with some sugar and sorbitol added, you get big chunks of surimi frozen and bagged.
To make the imitation crab, the big chunks are flaked, things like starch, vegetable oil, salt and just a bit of real crab are added. It’s all molded, cut, shaped and colored to somewhat resemble crab.
Does it taste like crab? Not by a long shot, my palate tells me in a side-by-side test. In the crab, there is still that essence of the sea from which the crustacean was so recently removed. The surimi is far removed from that environment and somewhat tasteless — not awful, really — just bland, with maybe a hint of crab flavor.
However, if you are really committed to saving money, surimi can work passably well in dishes that have savory sauces or seasonings, lending a crablike texture behind the stronger ingredients. Crab enchiladas, maybe, or au gratin. I don’t like cheese on real crab, but I could forgive cheese on surimi.
Here are a couple of recipes I made both ways, a version with fresh crab and one with surimi. The salad is especially good, quick and healthy. The fresh crab stands up to the dressing and grapefruit well, but the citrus flavors shove the surimi into the background, as a texture. My wife and I agreed that the salad was more delicious with crab, but good either way.
The timbales were a little complicated, although fun to make, and the surimi actually fared much better in this recipe. Maybe being baked with the leeks and seasonings, then served on a plate of fresh tomato sauce leveled the field a little more against the fresh crab. As good? No, but much closer.
It’s your budget and your choice, real or fake crab. My basic rule would be that if you’re serving it with a little melted butter and lemon, stick with real crab, buy it whole and crack it yourself.
Cucumber-grapefruit crab salad
1/4cup plain nonfat yogurt
2tablespoons fresh lime juice
1/2teaspoon finely grated lime zest
2tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Tabasco sauce
Salt and freshly ground white pepper
1/2pound Dungeness crab meat
1teaspoon Champagne vinegar
1seedless cucumber, peeled and sliced into thin half moons
1pink grapefruit, cut into segments
1/2cup steamed edamame
In a large bowl, mix the yogurt with the lime juice, lime zest, oil and a few dashes of Tabasco. Season with salt and white pepper. Place the crab in a bowl and fold in 3 tablespoons of the yogurt dressing.
Stir the vinegar into the remaining dressing. Fold in the cucumber, grapefruit and edamame. Arrange the salad on plates, top with the crab. Makes 4 servings.
Recipe by Sandro Gamba, Food &Wine, May 2007
Crab and leek timbales
1pound ripe tomatoes
Salt and sugar, to taste
2medium leeks
1tablespoon butter
11/2cups warm milk or half-and-half
4eggs, at room temperature
3/4teaspoon salt
1/2teaspoon paprika
Pinch of cayenne or white pepper
1cup cooked crabmeat, shredded
Quarter the tomatoes and place them in a saucepan. Cover and cook over medium-low heat 15 minutes, or until they have rendered a lot of juice. Pass the tomatoes through a food mill, return the puree to the pan and simmer until slightly thickened, about 30 minutes. Season to taste with salt and a pinch of sugar, if needed. Keep warm.
Slice the white and pale green parts of the leeks crosswise. In a bowl of water, swirl and rinse any dirt out of the slices, pulling them apart if necessary. Drain and cook gently in butter until tender.
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Combine the milk, eggs, salt and seasonings and beat with a whisk until slightly foamy. Stir in the leeks and crabmeat. Pour into 10 buttered timbale molds, small ramekins or cups of a muffin tin. Place in a baking pan and add hot water to half the depth of the molds or muffin cups. Cover loosely with foil and bake until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Unmold the timbales and serve inverted on small plates, surrounded with a little tomato sauce.
Makes 10 appetizers.
Recipe from “West Coast Seafood” by Jay Harlow
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
