Chef critique
Brown-Butter Dungeness Supper
This is a well-written, coherent recipe that successfully guides a home cook through prepping and serving whole Dungeness crab. The inclusion of a safety step when making the lemon brown butter is excellent. With minor adjustments to the butter quantity and potato seasoning, this recipe will yield a flawless seafood dinner.
Score: 8/10
Suggested fixes
- Increase the unsalted butter to at least 8 tablespoons (1 stick) to ensure there is enough for both dressing the vegetables and dipping the crab.
- Increase the kosher salt in the potato boiling water from 1/2 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon.
- Instruct the cook to bring the steamer water with aromatics to a boil and let it simmer for 5-10 minutes before adding the crab and corn, allowing the aromatic steam to develop.
Issues
- medium / ingredient_usage: 4 tablespoons of butter is insufficient for dressing 1 lb of potatoes, 2 ears of corn, and serving as an adequate dipping sauce for two whole crabs for two people. The butter quantity should be at least doubled.
- medium / flavor: 1/2 teaspoon of salt in 2 quarts of water is far too little to properly season 1 lb of boiling potatoes. Standard culinary practice requires at least 1 tablespoon of kosher salt for this volume of water.
- low / flavor: Adding aromatics (onion, lemon half, bay leaf) to the steamer water immediately before a brief 8-10 minute steam will not give them enough time to release their essential oils and adequately flavor the crab.
Strengths
- Excellent instruction to let the brown butter cool before adding lemon juice, which prevents dangerous sputtering and splattering.
- Prep steps are properly batched at the very beginning of the instructions.
- Timing and cost estimates are highly accurate and realistic for a crab dinner.
- Instructions for cleaning and prepping the whole Dungeness crabs are clear and accurate.