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Crab stock is one of my favorite seafood stocks. It’s a richly flavored stock that can be used as a base in all sorts of seafood soup recipes, especially soups like crab bisque, crab chowder, and crab stew.
It’s not something many people make at home, however, the method for making crab stock is almost identical to lobster stock, a stock that is probably more familiar to my fellow New Englanders.
And though crabs have historically not been important commercial fisheries in New England, that could be changing in the near future.
The southern New England lobster industry, that being all points south of Cape Cod, has suffered tremendous losses in recent decades due to rising water temperatures. As a result, lobstermen are being forced to adapt. Ironically, one of New England’s most abundant crab species, the Jonah crab, once a nuisance bycatch of lobster traps, is now being targeted.
Though still relatively unknown, even in New England, they’re slowly starting to catch on. As It turns out, Jonah crabs are quite delicious! They are medium-sized reddish-brown crabs with two large front claws and their meat is often described as sweet, briny, and flakier than the more well-known blue crab. And they make a fantastic crab stock.
That said any type of crab is interchangeable in making crab stock. Feel free to use whatever type of crabs are local to you. Blue crabs, stone crabs, Dungeness crabs, rock crabs, king crabs, snow crabs, etc. all make equally delicious crab stocks. Let me show you how to do it!
From the four pounds of Jonah crab claws, I got approximately 2 1/2 quarts of crab stock (pictured below) Not bad! That said, it was a tad on the sweet side. This was due to the tomato paste. Since shooting the video, I’ve learned that I actually prefer fresh tomatoes in my shellfish stock recipes as opposed to tomato paste.
This is just my personal preference though. Most shellfish stocks use canned tomatoes or tomato paste but I now feel that they can add too much sweetness and obscure the shellfish flavor. I’ve amended the recipe below to include one and a half pounds of fresh tomatoes. You could even leave out tomatoes entirely for a bolder shellfish flavor.
I also amended the total amount of crab carcasses to two pounds as four pounds is quite a lot. But if for whatever reason you have more than two pounds, just know that one quart of water per pound of shells is a good ratio that will give consistently good results.
I should also mention that even though I used leftover crab carcasses you could also use whole crabs to make a crab stock and not even bother with picking out the meat. One benefit of using whole crabs is that the bodies harbor some nice flavors.
Simply boil or steam some whole crabs (make sure to reserve the steaming liquid for the stock), then slice and/or break them up into smaller pieces and then make your stock. This is a great way to use the pesky and invasive green crabs because they are so small and have so little meat in them.
You can substitute crab stock for any seafood soup that calls for seafood stock. Shellfish stocks like lobster stock and shrimp stock are very interchangeable with crab stock as their flavors are quite similar. But crab stock could also be used in place of seafood soups that use clam juice or fish stock.
That said, the best use for crab stock is, of course, crab soups! Those that live in the mid-Atlantic area, especially near the Chesapeake Bay where the abundant blue crabs are celebrated in numerous regional soup recipes, surely know this well.
You can find many recipes for crab soups in my cookbook, New England Soups from the Sea. It includes the crab stock recipe below as well as the following crab soup recipes:
From Rhode Island to Maine—Get 80 locally inspired recipes that honor the traditions of America’s northeast.
It also includes many other types of seafood stocks and broths, including lobster stock, two types of fish broth, clam broth, and mussels broth, each of which has dozens of corresponding seafood soup recipes.
Crab shells, carcasses or even whole crabs can all be used to make a simple crab stock which will add depth and flavor to seafood soups.
Craig Fear is the creator of Fearless Eating and the author of three books, The 30-Day Heartburn Solution, Fearless Broths and Soups and The Thai Soup Secret. After years helping clients with digestive issues, Craig decided to pursue writing full-time. He intends to write many more books on broths and soups from around the world! Click here to learn more about Craig.
