Ocean City Maryland Crab Soup Recipe

Add the chuck roast, onions, carrots, and celery to a large soup pot or crabpot, cover with water & cook until meat is tender. Remove meat, cut into pieces. Return beef to stock in pot Add tomatoes, tomato juice, potatoes, claw meat, cleaned crabs, mixed veggies, and seasonings. Add more water, if necessary to almost cover the solids. Bring to boil, add cleaned crabs and the remaining ingredients; cover and simmer until done. Adjust seasoning and ladle soup into bowls, placing a half crab on top of each.

NOTE: Put six LIVE crabs into the freezer. When they are frozen and immobile, take out and clean each crab by removing top shell (make SURE they're frozen or you might have one ticked off crab and a serious potential for bodily hard - to you) and cleaning out the gills and the devil (crab term) - be sure to leave legs and claws attached; snap cleaned crab in half along the natural center of the body and toss into boiling stock in pot.

NOTE 2: If you have some leftover crabs, you can clean them and add to the soup about 1/2 hour before soup is done.