Cracking crustaceans in Key Largo

To the initiated, “stone crab claws” are the best-tasting crab in the world, and there’s no better place in the world to eat them than fresh from the ocean in the Florida Keys.

In celebration of this king of crustacean delicacies, Key Largo is to stage a Stone Crab Festival 30/31 January 2010.

Attendees at the Stone Crab Festival can feast on fresh stone crab claws along with locally caught fish and the shellfish conch, another Keys speciality. Music and entertainment also will be on tap, with scheduled events including competitions, cooking demonstrations and even a “Conch Cook-Off.” In addition, Saturday evening’s festivities are to culminate in a fireworks display. For more information on the festival, go to keylargoseafoodfestival.com.

Stone crabs live and breed in the waters around the Florida Keys and have a very unique feature: the ability to regenerate their claws, essentially making them a renewable resource.

Local commercial fisherman harvest claws from crabs using baited traps. By law, only one claw can be taken at a time and it must be bigger than 2.75 inches. The live crab, still with one intact claw, is then returned to the ocean to grow a new limb.

Many crustacean gourmets believe that the meat from Florida’s stone crab claws is sweeter, tastier and more tender than that from any other crustacean. Claws are most commonly served warm with clarified butter or chilled with mustard sauce.

The stone crab season runs from 15 October to 15 May each year.