Recipe: Poor Man's Crab Stewe

Captain Kathy Brown is holding up a nice Sheepshead!


In last week’s fishing report I published my grilling Sheepshead recipe. For this week I would like to explain to how to make Sheepshead stew also known as Poor Man’s Crab Stew!



Poor Man’s Crab Stew
(The recipe is made with Sheepshead cooked meat. However, if you want to substitute blue crab or lump crab meat it will work also.)

1 pound of cooked (grilled or not) Sheepshead meat only
1 Vidalia onion
Real butter one stick
Worcestershire sauce (2 tablespoons I probably add more, it up to the chief)
Quart of 2% milk (can use whole milk)
Can of condensed cream half and half (optional)
Old Bay seasoning
Garlic (powder or fresh)
Salt and pepper
Cooking sherry

And any other species that you care to add….you see back in the old days, at least in our kitchen we had all of these species I listed above. And I should add to this, lots of ketchup, which daddy poured on everything. The fact of the matter is my father brought ketchup by the case.
And back in the old days, daddy had to pay extra for that bottle of ketchup that he was most likely going to consume.


As far as cooking sherry my father made pear wine in his wooden water barrel, which is he brought up from the boat every year during winter time. According to my father, if he didn’t put some sort of liquid in the boat’s wooden water barrel, it would shrink as well as rot. To this day I don’t understand why he didn’t just leave it full of water. However, after thinking about that for a moment I already knew the reasoning behind this move. To this day I can’t ever remember his ever saying, “Pour some pear wine into the Sheepshead stew!” However, I do know that cooking sherry or a suitable table wine really would add an extra flavor to this recipe.

Now back to the recipe…sorry sometimes I get side tracked!

I usually fillet my Sheepshead; remove the skin, and all bones. All you then end up with is the wonderful Sheepshead meat. I season it with butter, garlic, Old Bay seasoning, salt and pepper. I then bake (350 to 425 degrees) until the meat is white and flaky. I then usually broil for a few minutes just to do a little browning. I remove the meat, let it cool a bit, and then break it with my hands not with a utensil. I want to break the meat into to large flakes.

I take a saucepan or pot and melt the butter. I cut the onion up in rings. (Some preferred chopped, which works just as well.) I add Worcestershire put raw onion rings in pan and slow cook until onions are soft as well as nice brown color. I then add oven cooked Sheepshead flakes to mixture and continue the browning procedure. Once this mixture is brown according to Chief I add then add milk while stirring. I keep the total mixture to simmer heat. For those that want their stew rich beyond control it’s time to add the cream. I let the entire mixture simmer until the meat and onion have absorbed each other’s smells. All you need now is a bowl to serve, a pile of saltine crackers, and maybe a little hot sauce! All I can say about this dish is “that not only is it wonderful to eat, but it makes a great conversation piece! And it actually does tastes like crab stew with a twist! Enjoy!


Thanks for reading! Captain Judy