Crab is something to enjoy almost year-round, especially living in the Golden Isles. At Mr. Shuck’s Seafood in Glynn Place Market at 107 Altama Connector in Brunswick, crab is owner Dante Habersham’s specialty.
Habersham said at 8 years old, he had a vision and knew that owning a business is what he would do with his life. At 25, he got with three other people to open Mr. Shuck’s Seafood. And now, 11 years later, they’re still going strong. Today, Habersham is the sole owner and he enjoys bonding with his customers.
“I enjoy the people, and I enjoy their reactions,” Habersham said. “When I was younger, I read a sign that said, ‘It took a lifetime to gain a customer and one second to lose him.’ So the excitement for me is when I see him come back the second time because everybody’s going to try it at least once. If you can retain them to come back, then you got them — it puts that taste in their mouth.”
Many people don’t realize, but if they order snow crab somewhere, it isn’t fresh unless it is being served in places near — the deep cold waters of the North Atlantic or North Pacific.
So when someone orders them here in the South, they’re warmed up. That’s both in terms of the cooking and the seasoning.
“We steam ours in — we use swamp fire seasoning, Florida garlic seasoning, a little bit of hot sauce and a little bit of seasoning salt,” Habersham said. “We steamed them in that water, and then we pull them out, and they are ready to go. You can eat snow crab right out of the box because it’s already cooked. You’re essentially just warming it up.”
Habersham has some tips for people wanting to cook crab legs at home.
“When you pop that shell, that meat should come up in a big old clump,” Habersham said. “If it’s sticking to the shell, that means they overcooked it. Also, never cook snow crab with vegetables — meat and potatoes, sausage and corn. Put the snow crabs in after the vegetables have been cooked and the pot is off.”
Crab legs pair great with sausage, corn and potatoes, but the perfect thing that everyone loves with them is delicious garlic butter to dip the chunks of meat into.
“It’s good without it, but it’s better with butter — it’s ‘butter’ that way,” Habersham joked.
As for the blue crab, Habersham goes out and does the crabbing himself off Jekyll Island. While at the restaurant, everyone who came in wanted those crab and were willing to wait 30-plus minutes to get their share.
The trick to cooking blue crab is helping the crab avoid self-harm because if not, there may be some claws missing in the process.
“With blue crabs, it’s best that you ice them down before you cook them,” Habersham said.
“What that does is put them asleep and allow the claws to stay intact so that they won’t break off the claws. If you dump them into boiling water, they do everything they can to get out, so icing them helps keep them together.”
Habersham’s next venture is to open Mr. Shuck’s food truck so he can take his seafood on the road.
“We’re trying to go to different cities that don’t have great seafood, and we’re trying to take Shucks to them,” Habersham said.
The food truck is still in the building process, but there is a giant sign at the store with a layout of what Habersham is looking to do with it.
In the meantime, Habersham has offered two home recipes he likes to use when cooking crab. These kinds of meals should be seasoned to the person’s liking, so the recipes include what Habersham does, but he encourages those to season as they please.
Crab Leg Recipe
Ingredients
Crab leg bushels to your liking (1 lb of crab)
Old Bay Garlic Herb seasoning
Directions:
Thaw your snow crab. Once they are thawed, get a full-sized foiled pan and put just enough water to cover the bottom. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
Lay your crab legs into the foiled pan. Sprinkle Old Bay Garlic Herb seasoning all over the crab. Cover the crab with foil and stick it into the oven for 10 minutes. Melt the butter to dip crab in, then take out of the oven and enjoy.
Blue Crab:
Ingredients:
Blue Crab (1 lb)
1/2 onion cut up
Frank’s Hot Sauce to your liking
1/2 cup of vinegar
1/3 cup seasoning salt
Directions:
Ice the crab down with ice and water for about 12 minutes. Fill the stock pot up half way with water. Cut up your onion and lemon. Get your water to a roaring boil, then combine all the ingredients into the pot and cook them for about 13-15 minutes. Then serve.
May 19, 2021 at 11:00AM
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Mr. Shuck's crab dishes bring new life to coastal treat - Brunswick News
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