The traditional and delightfully messy way to serve these crabs is to dump them onto the center of a table covered with newspaper. For cracking, hand out small hammers, pliers, or nutcrackers. For picking out meat, provide wooden skewers, seafood forks, and nut picks. An atmosphere of congeniality and a roll of paper towels or stack of Wet-Naps are key.

Fit a steamer insert into a very large stockpot. Pour into the pot:

Add water to come two-thirds of the way up to the bottom of the insert. Bring the mixture to a boil. Rinse under cold water:

Arrange in no more than 6 layers in the steamer insert, sprinkling each layer with:

Reduce the heat to a rapid simmer, cover the pot tightly, and steam the crabs until they turn bright pink and their legs can be pulled from the sockets fairly easily, 15 to 20 minutes. Serve with: