Chesapeake Bay's summer ritual: live Maryland blue crabs steamed with beer, vinegar and Old Bay, dumped onto a butcher-paper table and cracked open with wooden mallets, eaten with melted butter and pilsner.
The Chesapeake blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) is the defining commercial seafood of the Maryland-DC region; the Tidewater watermen of Maryland have harvested them commercially since the 19th century. The Old-Bay-and-vinegar steaming format codified in the early 20th century at Baltimore and DC crab houses. The Maine Avenue Fish Market in DC sells live blue crabs by the dozen and bushel, and crab houses across the DC metro area run all-you-can-eat steamed crabs from May through October. The Old Bay seasoning blend, developed in Baltimore by Gustav Brunn in 1939 and now owned by McCormick, is non-negotiable.
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