Deviled crab (''croqueta de jaiba'' in
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
) is a
crab meat
Crab meat or crab marrow is the meat found within a crab. It is used in many cuisines around the world, prized for its soft, delicate and sweet taste. Crab meat is low in fat and provides around of food energy per serving. Brown crab (''Canc ...
croquette. Deviled crab croquettes originated in
Tampa, Florida
Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and ...
, where they were developed in the
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
,
Cuban and
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
immigrant community of
Ybor City. It is typically served for lunch or as a snack, and it is meant to be eaten with one hand.
Deviled crabs are somewhat similar to
boardwalk-style Maryland crab cakes. Differences include the oblong shape, the seasonings used, and the preferred method of eating (by hand). Since deviled crabs were designed to be hand-held, they are packed together more densely than a crab cake so as to not come apart easily.
Preparation and description
The deviled crab is prepared by slowly
sautéing
Sautéing or sauteing (, ; in reference to tossing while cooking) is a method of cooking that uses a relatively small amount of oil or fat in a shallow pan over relatively high heat. Various sauté methods exist.
Description
Ingredients for ...
blue crab Blue crab may refer to:
* Blue Crab 11, an American sailboat design
* ''Callinectes sapidus'' – Chesapeake or Atlantic blue crab of the West Atlantic, introduced elsewhere
* '' Cardisoma guanhumi'' – blue land crab of the West Atlantic
* '' Dis ...
meat with a seasoning sauce made with tomatoes, onions, peppers, and various other flavors. This seasoning sauce is a version of a
Cuban-style
enchilada
An enchilada (, ) is a Mexican dish consisting of a corn tortilla rolled around a filling and covered with a savory sauce. Enchiladas can be filled with various ingredients, including meats, cheese, beans, potatoes, vegetables, or combinations. ...
/ ''
sofrito
(Spanish, ), ( Catalan), (Italian, ), or (Portuguese, ) is a basic preparation in Mediterranean, Latin American, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese cooking. It typically consists of aromatic ingredients cut into small pieces and sautéed o ...
'' sauce, known locally as "''chilau''".
Once most of the liquid is gone, the cooked crab meat is rolled in breadcrumbs (traditionally stale
Cuban bread
Cuban bread is a fairly simple white bread, similar to French bread and Italian bread, but has a slightly different baking method and ingredient list (in particular, it generally includes a small amount of fat in the form of lard or vegetable s ...
) and hand-formed into the approximate shape of a
rugby football
Rugby football is the collective name for the team sports of rugby union and rugby league.
Canadian football and, to a lesser extent, American football were once considered forms of rugby football, but are seldom now referred to as such. The ...
or small
potato
The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae.
Wild potato species can be found from the southern Unit ...
, then
deep fried
Deep frying (also referred to as deep fat frying) is a cooking method in which food is submerged in hot fat, traditionally lard but today most commonly oil, as opposed to the shallow oil used in conventional frying done in a frying pan. Norma ...
until brown. Early versions of the recipe usually contained more spicy
chili pepper
Chili peppers (also chile, chile pepper, chilli pepper, or chilli), from Nahuatl '' chīlli'' (), are varieties of the berry-fruit of plants from the genus ''Capsicum'', which are members of the nightshade family Solanaceae, cultivated for ...
than modern versions, thus giving them the appellation "deviled" in English.
As the ''croqueta's'' spiciness was toned down to account for a wider range of tastes, various
pepper sauces became a common
condiment
A condiment is a preparation that is added to food, typically after cooking, to impart a specific flavor, to enhance the flavor, or to complement the dish. A table condiment or table sauce is more specifically a condiment that is served separat ...
utilized by those who liked their deviled crabs hot.
History
Deviled crabs originated in the
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
/
Cuban/
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
immigrant community of
Ybor City,
Tampa, Florida
Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and ...
during a late-1920s
strike
Strike may refer to:
People
* Strike (surname)
Physical confrontation or removal
*Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm
*Airstrike, military strike by air forces on either a suspected ...
in the area's
cigar factories. Since
blue crabs were plentiful in the nearby waters of
Tampa Bay
Tampa Bay is a large natural harbor and shallow estuary connected to the Gulf of Mexico on the west-central coast of Florida, comprising Hillsborough Bay, McKay Bay, Old Tampa Bay, Middle Tampa Bay, and Lower Tampa Bay. The largest freshwater ...
and Cuban bread was cheap, unknown home chefs seeking an inexpensive meal combined these ingredients with their own seasonings to make Tampa-style crab croquettes. These ''croquetas de jaiba'' became widely popular after the strike, when local entrepreneurs began selling their own versions of the snack from pushcarts and bicycles along Tampa sidewalks.
["Tampa's Favorite Street Food" - New York Times](_blank)
/ref>
Deviled crabs are still popular in the Tampa Bay area
The Tampa Bay area is a major populated area surrounding Tampa Bay on the west coast of Florida in the United States. It includes the main cities of Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Clearwater. It is the 18th largest metropolitan area in the Unite ...
, especially in lunch cafes and restaurants that serve Cuban and/or Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
cuisine in Ybor City and West Tampa
West Tampa is one of the oldest neighborhoods within the city limits of Tampa, Florida, United States. It was an independently incorporated city from 1895 until 1925, when it was annexed by Tampa.
West Tampa is located west of the Hillsborough ...
. Smaller crab ''croquetas'' are commonly served as appetizers while larger versions can be a meal onto themselves.
Other versions
Up the U.S. Atlantic coast from Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
to the Chesapeake Bay
The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The Bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula (including the parts: the Eastern Shore of Maryland / ...
region, "deviled crab" refers to a different dish entirely. In this version, crab meat (usually blue crab Blue crab may refer to:
* Blue Crab 11, an American sailboat design
* ''Callinectes sapidus'' – Chesapeake or Atlantic blue crab of the West Atlantic, introduced elsewhere
* '' Cardisoma guanhumi'' – blue land crab of the West Atlantic
* '' Dis ...
) is taken out of the shell, mixed and cooked with bread crumbs and spices with a consistency similar to loose crab cake, and then returned to a halved crab shell to be served and eaten with a fork or spoon.Deviled Crab < 20 Coastal Crab Recipes - Coastal Living
/ref> Another in-shell version of the deviled crab that is served in India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
and along the coastlines of other south Asian countries is more similar to the Chesapeake deviled crab than the Tampa deviled crab.
See also
* List of crab dishes
This is a list of crab dishes. Crabs live in all the world's oceans, in fresh water, and on land, are generally covered with a thick exoskeleton and are arthropoda and have a single pair of claws. Crab meat is the meat found within a crab. It is ...
* List of seafood dishes
This is a list of notable seafood dishes. Seafood dishes are food dishes which use seafood (fish, shellfish or seaweed) as primary ingredients, and are ready to be served or eaten with any needed preparation or cooking completed. Many fish or ...
References
{{reflist, 2
External links
New York Times slideshow of Tampa's deviled crabs
Crab dishes
Cuban cuisine
Culture of Tampa, Florida
American seafood dishes
Deep fried foods