ROUSES_JulyAug2019_Magazine

Crabbing on the Coast by Donny Rouse, CEO, 3 rd Generation

photo by Romney Caruso

One of my fondest childhood memories is crabbing with my father and grandfather on Grand Isle. You didn’t even need a boat; you could just set a trotline in the sandbar, with one pole here, one pole there, and a long line baited with chicken necks or turkey necks from Rouses running in between. When the crabs were really thick you could walk the shore, dragging the bottom of the water with a dip net, and scoop them up. My wife’s family has a camp in Dulac where we’d go crabbing from the pier. You simply take some string, tie a net with some bait on it, and hang it off the pier. A few years back, she and the kids started a new crabbing ritual in Orange Beach: On summer evenings, they’ll take a couple of flashlights to the beach to chase toodaloo crabs along the shoreline. Now, I can think of a few better things to do with crabs than chase them — like eat them. At Rouses, we made our name selling local seafood. We boil crabs and shrimp in our stores all summer long, using my grandfather’s recipe. I boil crabs at home on the regular. Here’s a little tip: There’s no need to boil crabs for 10 or 15 minutes;

you’re overboiling them. Turn the fire off after five minutes, and the crabmeat will flake better when you pick it. Today, Vietnamese-style seafood boils are becoming popular across the Gulf Coast. We experimented with Vietnamese crawfish boils during the crawfish season, and I love the idea of tossing boiled crabs with Viet-Cajun garlic butter (see page 15) , because crabmeat, like fish, loves butter. And this recipe’s also a delicious example of the Gulf Coast as a true melting pot. You could also try using Drago’s Butter Garlic Charbroiling Sauce on your crabs, which we sell in our stores. Crabs are in season almost year-round, but July and August are when they’re really running. They can be found in the Gulf, back bays and passes, spillways and saltwater estuaries all over the Coast — and at your neighborhood Rouses.

SUMMER’S HERE...LET’S GET CRACKING!

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