Brown Crab, China and Jamie Oliver

It couldn’t have come at a better time really, because in the immortal but slightly erroneous words of the Apollo 13 mission. ‘Houston we have a problem’ - a big problem and it involves the story of one of our most abundant and traditional seafood species - the brown crab (Cancer pagurus).

Last week saw the Channel 4 re-run of Series 6 Jamie Oliver’s Jamie & Jimmy’s Friday Night Feast, where in episode 1 accompanied by his erstwhile partner in food heroics, Jimmy Doherty, Jamie sets out to discover why the UK consumer eats so little brown crab compared to other neighbouring nations who eat it by the lorry load.

It’s a very simple question to answer really, but a much harder one to address when as a country we consume so very little seafood anyway and even then 70% of what we do eat is imported. Yes, it’s still the ‘infamous five’ I’m afraid. Tuna, salmon, cod , haddock and the tedious, never ending, conveyor belt of farmed Asian prawns that adorn just about every supermarket cold shelf in the kingdom.

The paradox is (and I’ll say it once again), that we do have the best quality fish and shellfish in our waters of any country in the Northern Hemisphere and yet we export 80% of what we catch and farm. Brown crab, as Jamie Oliver found out during our seaside exploration on the South Coast, is mostly exported and more recently, mainly to China, in a colossal market worth approximately £50m/year.

Until now…..

Just before Christmas, Chinese government trade officials announced, quite glibly, that they would no longer be accepting shipments of live and processed brown crab from the UK until further notice and that’s before Coronavirus reared its ugly head. Now, I’m not going to delve into the political complexities surrounding this announcement, but what I can tell you is that we land around 30,000 tonnes of these wonderful crustaceans into UK ports every year, and relatively very little makes its way onto our tables. Half of that figure has been attributed to China, with other export markets such as France, Spain, Portugal etc accounting for most of the rest.

So notwithstanding the fact that Messrs Oliver & Doherty have been doing a sterling job reinvigourating our passion for the white and brown meat, there could soon be an awful lot of crab suddenly looking for a home, once the spring landings start from Bridlington to Brixham.

Now call me old fashioned, but when the fishermen have seen prices leap to around £4/kg on the quayside for their product in recent years, a drop to around £1.50/kg or less, seems realistic now and with massive investment in the crab catching sector on the back of the exports to China, a lot of fishermen are already mightily concerned about this year and the prospects for continued trade.

When I’m giving talks on seafood consumption and sustainability, I always say that any export market is never guaranteed and a fallback position is essential to protect incomes and livelihoods. That fallback position has to be the domestic market, but of course it’s incredibly difficult to be reactive, when you have a poor record on seafood consumption and a culture and retail sector that lacks understanding and passion for the product.

However, I’m eternally optimistic and a little knowledge does indeed go a long way. Jamie and Jimmy say it very well in their programme and people shouldn’t see it as just a jolly on the pier, but a message with integrity and reason. When we recorded the programme the Chinese crab market was in full swing, it’s now ebbed to a trickle and a full stop.

Have a look at the episode - you can find it here and at 20-26 minutes in on More4 (you might have to sign in). See what you think and I can guarantee that your mouth will be watering by the end……

The Ultimate Crab Sandwich

Everyone, yes everyone, should be made to try a good crab sandwich once in their life. My mother was obsessed with them and had a dream of retiring to Cornwall to sell them in a little kiosk on Looe harbour quay. I don’t honestly think she’d have made a lot of money, as such was her ardour for their flavour, she’d have just ended up making them for herself.

Ingredients (Serves 2)

250 g fresh picked white brown crab meat

100g fresh picked brown brown crab meat

2 tbsp of fresh, homemade mayonnaise

Several thick doorstep slices of fresh white bloomer loaf, or a split crusty baguette.

Cornish dairy butter

Half a lemon

Freshly ground black and white pepper.

Method

Mix the brown meat in with the mayonnaise, a squeeze of lemon and fold to a smooth consistency. Butter the bread liberally and apply the mayo/brown meat mix. Heap the flaked white meat on to the prepared slices, firm down a little and again squeeze a little lemon over. Dust with a little white pepper and grind over some black pepper too, to your taste.

Close the sandwiches off and firm again before slicing and serving. You could of course add fresh herbs parsley, coriander or chervil to the mix (the latter being particularly suited to crab), but actually there’s nothing like having it unadulterated. Enjoy with a cold beer. Beer and crab go phenomenally well together.