Talk Like a Waterman: A Chesapeake Bay Glossary

Crab talk

• Jimmy — a mature male crab, prized for size and claw meat.
• Sook — a mature female crab; look for orange claw tips and a dome-shaped apron.
• Peeler — a crab that's about to molt (shed its shell); the source of soft crabs.
• Buster — a crab in the act of busting out of its old shell.
• Soft crab — a crab caught just after molting, eaten shell and all.
• Sponge crab — an egg-bearing female carrying an orange mass; throw these back.
• #1 / #2 — grades of male crabs by size, #1 being the larger.
• Bushel — the standard measure crabs are sold by (roughly six to seven dozen).
• "Are they heavy?" — the key question: heavy crabs are full of meat.
• Mustard — the soft yellow stuff inside a crab (its hepatopancreas), a delicacy to some.

Boats & watermen

• Waterman — someone who makes a living harvesting the Bay (crabs, oysters, fish).
• Deadrise — the classic V-bottomed wooden workboat of the Chesapeake.
• Skipjack — the traditional sailing oyster-dredging boat; Maryland's state boat.
• Draketail — an early powered workboat style named for Hooper Island.
• Tonging — harvesting oysters by hand with long, scissor-like tongs.

Land, water & critters

• The Shore — to Marylanders, "the Eastern Shore," the land east of the Chesapeake.
• Delmarva — the peninsula shared by Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia.
• Guzzle (or gut) — a tidal channel winding through the marsh.
• Sika — the small Asian elk that roams the Dorchester marshes.
• Rockfish — the local name for striped bass, Maryland's state fish.
• Terrapin — the diamondback terrapin, the Bay's marsh turtle and state reptile.

A few at the table

• Old Bay — the iconic Maryland seafood seasoning; goes on everything.
• Smith Island cake — Maryland's many-layered state dessert, from the island just south.
• Steamed vs. picked — "steamed" crabs you crack yourself; "picked" means the meat's already out.

Master a few of these and your crab feast will feel a whole lot more like home.