Q 01/05

When a blue crab is cooked and its blue pigment breaks down, which colour does the shell turn?

A) Orange-red

B) Dark brown

C) Pale grey

D) Deep purple

Answer · why

A) Orange-red

Orange-red is the colour of astaxanthin, a pigment that survives the heat. In a live crab it is masked by a blue pigment that cooking destroys.

Q 02/05

Chesapeake crabbers say the narrow apron under a male blue crab looks like which landmark?

A) Empire State Building

B) Eiffel Tower

C) Washington Monument

D) Space Needle

Answer · why

C) Washington Monument

The Washington Monument is the local shorthand for a male's slender apron. A mature female's rounded apron is compared to the dome of the US Capitol.

Q 03/05

Which Chesapeake Bay state made the blue crab its official state crustacean?

A) Virginia

B) Delaware

C) New Jersey

D) Maryland

Answer · why

D) Maryland

Maryland gave the blue crab the title in 1989. The crab is the state's most valuable commercial fishery and the heart of its crab cakes and summer cra...

Q 04/05

Which grim habit forces a freshly molted blue crab to hide until its shell hardens?

A) Territorial duels

B) Cannibalism

C) Shell theft

D) Egg raiding

Answer · why

B) Cannibalism

Cannibalism is routine for blue crabs, which eat almost anything they can find, including smaller and soft-shelled crabs of their own species.

Q 05/05

Which Baltimore spice blend, created in 1939, is chiefly used to season blue crabs and shrimp?

A) Lawry's

B) Zatarain's

C) Old Bay

D) Tony Chachere's

Answer · why

C) Old Bay

Old Bay is named after the Old Bay Line, a steamship company that sailed out of Baltimore. Its creator, Gustav Brunn, was a spice merchant who had fle...