Whole blue crabs steamed under a heavy coat of Old Bay or J.O. seasoning, dumped on a brown-paper table and cracked open with wooden mallets. The crab feast is a Baltimore summer ritual as much as a meal.

Steaming whole crabs in seasoned salt is the oldest way Baltimore eats its Chesapeake catch, a working-waterman tradition that became the city's defining summer feast. Crabs are graded by size and sold by the dozen, steamed to order and piled high. The communal table, the mallets, the cold beer and the slow, messy work of picking are the whole point, and crab houses around the harbour and out on the water have run the ritual for generations.

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