I’ve been following the green crab (Carcinus maenas) issue for a few years now. I’ve written about the biblical effect of this invasive species on soft shell clams, wild mussels, and eel grass along the Atlantic coast from Connecticut to Nova Scotia, including the mussel capital of the world, Prince Edward Island. And I’ve written about the various proposals experts have put forth to slow this attack, including creating a culinary market for them.
A few years ago, a group of scientists and stakeholders formed the Green Crab R&D Project. Their mission was to study the green crab through the lens of the kitchen: How can we eat them? How can we eat lots of them?
The team traveled to Venice where a close cousin of our green crab, called “moleche” or “moeche” in Venetian dialect, is considered a delicacy. Italian nonnas covet the moleche in their soft shell form, deep frying batches of them and plunking them down on a table with lots of fresh lemon wedges and parsley. Italian grandmothers and Venetian chefs charge the crabs’ roe (called masinette - there are various spellings) with culinary super powers. Locals know to block off a week in the autumn for the masinette festival, in which restaurants all over the city show off their ways with the stuff. (The brilliance of eating our green crab masinette is that you are eating the next generation, perhaps the ideal form of population control.)
The Green Crab Research and Development Team, under the direction of Mary Parks, has assembled their work - the science of this fishery, how to handle the green crabs and harvest the masinette, and a number of inventive recipes (including my recipe for taramosalata made with masinette) - into The Green Crab Cookbook. Florence Fabricant of The New York Times recently gave a shout out to this adventurous cookbook.
Green Crabs have also arrived on the big screen. Award-winning documentary photographer Nubar Alexanian has made a film about the green crab crisis called “Recipe for Disaster.” (I have a small role making green crab “she-crab” soup in the film.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-qNScN4kyU
To order the book and to learn more about the Green Crab Project head here.