Crab-Stuffed Flounder Day

What the day is

Crab-Stuffed Flounder Day is observed on February 18. The dish is a flounder fillet wrapped around or topped with a crab stuffing, then baked and usually finished with butter or a light sauce.

It is a fixture of Chesapeake and Mid-Atlantic restaurant menus, where both ingredients are local, and it belongs to the category of dishes that read as special occasion without being difficult.

Origin and background

The origin of the observance is not documented.

The pairing makes sense on its own terms. Flounder is a flatfish with thin, delicate, very mild fillets, which means it carries other flavors well and offers little of its own. Crab is sweet, rich and expensive. Stuffing one with the other stretches a small quantity of crab across a full plate and gives the flounder something to be.

Flatfish anatomy explains the fillets. Flounder begin life swimming upright like other fish, and during development one eye migrates across the skull so the adult can lie flat on the seabed with both eyes facing up. The resulting body yields four thin fillets rather than two thick ones, which is why they are usually rolled, folded or topped rather than cooked as steaks.

Crab grade matters more than any other choice here. Jumbo lump is the showpiece and is largely wasted inside a stuffing; backfin or claw meat has more flavor, costs considerably less, and is the sensible choice when it is going to be bound with breadcrumb and egg anyway.

How to take part

• Pick the crab over carefully. A single fragment of shell ruins an otherwise elegant plate.
• Bind the stuffing lightly. Egg and a little mayonnaise or cracker crumb is enough; too much filler turns it into stuffing with crab in it rather than the reverse.
• Do not overcook. Flounder is thin and goes from done to dry in a couple of minutes. Pull it when the fish just flakes.
• Season the fish itself before stuffing, not just the filling.
• Add acid at the table: lemon, or a sauce with wine in it, against all that butter and sweetness.