Potted Crab

So I was wandering around online a while back (do all my posts start like that??!!) and came across a recipe for potted crab. What??!!! I’ve made potted ham, potted duck, potted pork, and potted sardines, but never crab. And if you look at my list of recipe links, you’ll notice that no matter the season I make more hors d’oeuvres and appetizers than anything else because I could live off of them. (Next in line are probably salads and condiments.)

I bought this book just for the potted crab recipe – The Complete Irish Pub Cookbook, published in 2019 and sold for a whopping $8.59. There is no author.

I love pub food, and I’ve made a few traditional Irish recipes for the blog, like Cranachan, Boxty, Bread and Butter Pudding, and Colcannon. Irish cuisine is definitely a homey, warming cuisine. But like British cuisine of late, it’s not all stews, pies, and soda bread. It has become more sophisticated. I’m sure potted crab is an authentic and traditional recipe, but to me, crab is fancy!

According to this book’s author: “Potting” is a method from pre-refrigeration days for preserving all kinds of meat and fish. More recently it has become a way of stretching extravagant ingredients a little farther. The food is packed into small pots and covered with a layer of melted butter.”

The recipe calls for crabmeat from one crab, no distinction on variety or weight. According to google, the weight could be between 7 and 12 ounces per crab, so I chose to use 9.5 ounces. I purchased a pound of frozen crabmeat from All Fresh Seafood. It’s loose meat and some leg meat.

Potted Crab
printable recipe below

1 large cooked crab, prepared by your fish dealer
Whole nutmeg, for grating
2 pinches of cayenne pepper
Juice of 1 lemon
2 sticks lightly salted butter
Salt and pepper
Buttered toast, to serve

Mix the crabmeat but don’t mash too smoothly. Season well with salt and pepper and a good grating of nutmeg and the cayenne pepper. Add lemon juice to taste.

Melt half of the butter in a saucepan and carefully mix in the crabmeat. Transfer the mixture into 4-6 small soufflé dishes or ramekins.

In a clean saucepan, heat the remaining butter until it melts, then continue heating for a few moments until it stops bubbling. Let the sediment settle and carefully pour the clarified butter over the crab mixture. This seal of clarified butter lets you keep the potted crab for 1-2 days. (I simply used ghee.)

Chill in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours. Serve with buttered toast.

This potted crab recipe is exceptional!