OUR PROCESS

Quality Control.

It’s a Family Tradition we honor with pride.

• Computerized temperature control with monitoring alarms for refrigeration, freezing, cooking, and pasteurizing
• Regular can teardowns to ensure proper seam specifications and profiles
• Continued process evaluation
• Modern HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points) seafood inspection plan
• Quality product grading
• Routine quality and boning checks for tolerances

We Steam ‘Em

Cooked in huge 4’x6’ steamers, the design of which has not changed much through the years.

We continuously steam batches of 20 bushels at 250 degrees for exactly 12 minutes. Temperature and timing are critical. If either overcooked or undercooked, the crabmeat is not as tasty and is more difficult to extract from the shell.

We Pick ‘Em

Over the years The J. M. Clayton Company has employed many local and very colorful crab pickers, from the legendary Fronie Jones to Donald Cephas, the fastest claw picker on the Eastern Shore.

To this day, picking by hand is surprisingly still the best and most efficient method of removing meat from the crab. An experienced picker can clean a bushel of crabs in about an hour, yielding 25 to 40 pounds of crabmeat each day.
Picking crabs was traditionally a family occupation. As soon as they were old enough, children would learn the art from their mothers. Pickers were proud of their profession and eagerly handed it down through the generations.

We Pack ‘Em

Fresh
• Inspected and iced ASAP to ensure the best product available.

Pasteurized
• Sealed in airtight containers and cooked in a 188º hot water bath. This allows the product to retain its freshness for 18 months at refrigerated temperatures.

Frozen
• Inspected and frozen as fast as possible using Nitrogen to reach temperatures below 100º.

• We stabilize the crabmeat to ensure there is no breakdown in taste or texture.

• Thawed slowly and prepared with your favorite recipe, or eaten right out of the container, it is as good as fresh.