: In the dead of night, when all are sleeping, our intrepid driver Paul drives to London and picks up our live crabs and lobsters from one of London’s most historic markets, Billingsgate. He drives through the night to drop them off to us in the perfect silence of dawn, when the only noise is from the lapping of the waves and the clanking of the rigging on the boats. Sometimes the perfect peace is disturbed by the comforting sound of an outboard motor on a boat that’s going out fishing. All is tranquil and beautiful, as it has been for generations.
For those of you who remember the old days, we used to keep them in tanks at the Shed, unfortunately, these were too expensive to maintain, and in an effort to cut costs to both ourselves and our customers, we had to get rid of them.
We then drown them in water, which is the most humane method of preparing them. We are very passionate about minimising suffering. Once they are ready, they are cooked in our ancient boilers in readiness for either dressing or serving as they are.
The crabs are then left to cool down, those that are going to be served whole are stored at a temperature of -4°c until they are served. They are served on the day of preparation, which is why we ask that you pre-order them. It is important to us that we do not waste crabs in order to protect the species, the environment, and to keep costs down.
Those that are ready for dressing are sent to our a workstation. It is usually, Norma, who is in her 80s, who picks and dresses the crabs, she has been doing this since 1985, and she quite rightly, takes enormous pride in her work.
All of the white and brown meat is picked from the crabs, at this stage, the meat is kept separately, and the shells are washed clean. Once the shells are clean and dry and all of the meat has been picked, it is arranged back in the shell with a third of brown meat in the centre and white meat on either side. The jury’s out on which meat is the most tasty, some people prefer the white, others the brown, and some like both equally, whatever your preference, our crabs are so deliciously fresh and tasty. They are one of the jewels in our crown. On the night before Christmas Eve we work through the night to get them ready for you to pick up on Christmas Eve and enjoy at Christmas.
The preparation of the crabs, especially the dressed ones, is a labour intensive process and this is reflected in the cost, but boy are they worth it.
Our lobsters are kept alive until they are needed, whenever possible, we use lobsters that have been caught off our own shores. Our luscious lobsters are prepared in the most humane manner and they are cooked to order. We allow them to cool down and store them until you are ready to eat them. However, some of them are partially cooked and and then finished off under the grill with our special recipe garlic and herb butter, they taste absolutely divine, and we do a them with a dairy free butter on request. These are hugely popular, and it’s easy to taste and see why.
