Deviled crab facts for kids
Deviled crab (called croqueta de jaiba in Spanish) is a tasty snack made from crab meat. It's shaped like a small ball or oval, similar to a croquette. This special dish first appeared in Tampa, Florida. It was created by the Spanish, Cuban, and Italian immigrant communities in a part of Tampa called Ybor City.
People usually eat deviled crabs for lunch or as a quick snack. They are designed to be held and eaten with just one hand.
Deviled crabs are a bit like crab cakes you might find in Maryland. But there are some key differences! Deviled crabs are usually oval-shaped, and they use different spices. Also, because they are meant to be eaten by hand, they are packed together more tightly than a crab cake. This helps them stay together and not fall apart easily.
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How Deviled Crabs Are Made
To make a deviled crab, blue crab meat is gently cooked with a special seasoning sauce. This sauce is made with ingredients like tomatoes, onions, and peppers, along with other flavors. It's a type of Cuban sauce, sometimes called "chilau" in Tampa.
Once the crab meat is cooked and most of the liquid is gone, it's rolled in breadcrumbs. Traditionally, people used stale Cuban bread for this. Then, the mixture is shaped by hand into an oval, like a small potato or a rugby ball. Finally, these shapes are deep fried until they turn a nice golden brown.
The name "deviled" came from early recipes that used a lot of spicy chili pepper. This made them very hot! Over time, the spiciness was reduced to suit more people's tastes. Now, if you like your deviled crab hot, you can add different pepper sauces to it.
The History of Deviled Crabs
Deviled crabs were first made in Ybor City, Tampa, Florida, in the late 1920s. This was during a time when workers in the local cigar factories were on strike.
During the strike, people needed cheap and easy meals. Blue crabs were easy to find in the nearby waters of Tampa Bay. Also, Cuban bread was very affordable. So, clever home cooks started combining these ingredients with their own spices. This is how the Tampa-style crab croquettes, or croquetas de jaiba, were born.
After the strike ended, these crab snacks became very popular. Local business owners began selling their own versions from pushcarts and bicycles on the sidewalks of Tampa.
Today, deviled crabs are still a favorite snack in the Tampa Bay area. You can often find them in lunch cafes and restaurants that serve Cuban or Spanish food, especially in Ybor City and West Tampa. Smaller deviled crabs are often served as appetizers, while larger ones can be a whole meal!
Other Kinds of Deviled Crab
If you travel up the U.S. Atlantic coast, from Georgia to the Chesapeake Bay area, "deviled crab" means something different. In this version, crab meat is taken out of its shell. It's then mixed and cooked with bread crumbs and spices, similar to a loose crab cake. This mixture is then put back into a halved crab shell. It's usually served and eaten with a fork or spoon.
You can also find similar in-shell deviled crab dishes in India and other countries along the coastlines of South Asia. These are more like the Chesapeake Bay style than the Tampa deviled crab.
See also
In Spanish: Croqueta de jaiba para niños
