New Orleans History -- Lake Pontchartrain
Thursday, April 18, 2024
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Dead Men

Oledog
dumb crab question
Fri Nov 29 2002 2:48:10 pm
do crabs have gills? Can they breath underwater? For some reason I want to put a few small crabs in an aquarium...any suggestions? i know this sounds wierd..

old dinosaur
crab gills...
Do crabs have gills?
Do chickens have teeth?

Of course crabs have gills. If you eva ate a buriled one, when you take off da shell, dem white stringey things dat look like fingers are the gills. We call dem "Dead Men." Dat's what ma paw called dem, dead men, musta looked likeum to him.

Cathy
Oh Yeah...
Thanks for reminding me. The old timers in my family called them "dead man's fingers". I had forgoten about that.

Cathy
Lake Crabs

I'm partial to Lake Pontchartrain crabs.

While eating crabs in a restaurant, at a friend's home, at my house, or at the camp, I can tell within a heartbeat of cracking that shell open and taking a bite whether or not I'm eating a "lake crab".

Lake crabs are fuller and sweeter. The meat is firm and more compact. The texture is better--not stingy or mushy but kind of chewy. Sometimes I can tell a boiled lake crab from a non-lake crab simply by the way it "smells" when you pop it open.

There's no real accounting for a Lake Crab's superiority. Even during the 70s and 80s when the Lake was declared polluted, the Lake Crabs maintained their fine qualities.

I don't think I'm Crabmentally prejudiced. I love a well steamed Dungenous Crab. Have had and enjoyed crabs/crab legs in Seattle and Alaska. I'm not comparing these to the local N.O. area species. They are a different animal.

My opinion is that Lake Pontchartrain crabs are (and have almost always been) the best crabs in the local area. I'm wondering if I am alone in this opinion. And would love to hear your thoughts about this.