Spanner Crab

Saint Peter’s JOSH NILAND lifts the lid on spanner crab to show how to get the most out of this sweet crustacean.

Freshly cooked crab is always the way to go. It makes the most of the crab’s sweetness, feels more luxurious, and, even if it’s a little fiddly, the reward far outweighs the effort. When it comes to choosing crab, pick one that’s both lively and heavy for its size, which will have the most meat. “Spanner crab in particular has a clean oceanic taste, and is much gentler in flavour than mud crab,” says Josh Niland of Sydney’s Saint Peter. “It has wonderful sweet meat that’s easy to work with.” Niland recommends picking the crab and serving it with simple accoutrements: herbs such as dill, chervil or chives, a good helping of freshly made mayonnaise, perhaps flavoured with the crab’s head coral, and boats of witlof leaves for scooping.

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