Devilled Crabs

This is a Pennsylvania classic that starts with whole live hard-shell crabs, boiled, picked clean, and the meat folded into a rich cream sauce seasoned with mace, Worcestershire, and mashed hard-boiled egg yolks. The mixture gets packed back into the cleaned upper shells, topped with breadcrumbs, and either baked or deep-fried.

Mace is the spice that gives devilled crab its distinctive flavor. It’s the lacy outer coating of a nutmeg seed, warmer and more floral than nutmeg itself. Just a quarter teaspoon goes a long way, and it pairs with crab the way cinnamon pairs with apples. If you’ve ever had devilled crab that tasted like it was missing something, it was probably missing mace.

The cream sauce is a simple roux: butter melted, flour stirred in, cream added and cooked until thick. It needs to be fairly stiff since it has to hold its shape inside the shells during baking. Mashed hard-boiled egg yolks stirred in add richness and body, binding the crab meat into a cohesive filling.

You get two finishing options. Baking gives a golden, crunchy breadcrumb top with a creamy interior. Deep-frying creates an all-over crispy shell that shatters when you bite through to the hot, creamy crab inside.

Chef Tips

• Pick through the crab meat carefully for shell fragments. Even one shard ruins a bite
• Clean the upper shells well after picking. A stiff brush under running water gets the job done
• Make the cream sauce thick enough to mound on a spoon. Too thin and it leaks out the shell edges
• If deep-frying, chill the stuffed shells for 30 minutes first so the filling holds together in the hot oil

Variations

• Add a dash of hot sauce or a pinch of cayenne to the filling for more heat (that’s what makes it “devilled")
• Use Old Bay seasoning alongside the mace for a Chesapeake Bay twist
• Substitute canned lump crab meat if fresh whole crabs aren’t available, though fresh is always better