Whole blue crabs are stuffed with a spicy herb-and-pork mixture, then grilled over high heat and basted with citrusy herb butter. 

Stuffing blue crabs with sausage before grilling makes for some very fine eating. Smoke, crabs, fatty sausage and herbs all work together very well, and this can be made on a tailgate, on a beach or anywhere you can get a grate hot.

The herbaceous seasoning mix for the sausage is split in half, with some of it being combined with butter for basting the crabs, and the remaining being mixed with ground pork for the stuffing.

Featured in the Crabs Video.

Serves 4

12 whole blue crabs, cleaned (top shells, entrails, gills and faces removed; not halved), claws gently cracked

4 cloves garlic, peeled

6 green onions, roughly chopped

2-3 jalapeños or serranos, roughly chopped

½ bunch cilantro, roughly chopped

½ bunch parsley, roughly chopped

10 sprigs mint, leaves only, roughly chopped

Juice and zest of 1 lime

Juice and zest of 1 lemon

1 tbsp salt

2 tbsp sugar

8 ounces butter, melted

¾ pound fatty ground pork or wild boar

Preheat a grill to high, or–even better–burn down some hardwood to very hot coals.

Combine the garlic, green onions, hot peppers, cilantro, parsley, mint, lime, lemon, salt and sugar in a food processor and pulse to a fairly smooth paste. Combine half of this mixture with the melted butter in a small pot and set aside at warm room temperature.

In a medium bowl, combine the remaining half of the herb mixture with the pork. Mix well with your hands until the mixture is very homogeneous and sticky.

Stuff about 3 tbsp of the pork mixture into each of the cavities in the center of the crabs, distributing this evenly.

Place the stuffed crabs on the grill, sausage-side down and cook for 8-10 minutes, until browned, then flip them over. Immediately begin to baste the crabs with the reserved butter mixture, brushing the butter over the sausage and the bodies of the crabs, including the claws. Baste constantly for about 10 more minutes.

Immediately remove the crabs to a platter. Allow to cool for a couple of minutes, then serve with steamed rice, a cucumber salad and cold beer.