He smiled down at the dog as he came over for a sniff. He couldn't blame him. It was all smelling good enough that if he was by himself, he'd already be cracking into one of the ones that cooked the quickest. "They really do. I shouldn't have been so worried." The proof would be in the taste. He had a hard time imagining they'd smell that good only to taste awful.

"I'll have to stop by and make a point of thanking the cook who put that together for me." They wouldn't have done half as well if he had been given free rein of the spice cabinet and had to guess what might work.

As more floated to the top, he dipped them out and passed them over to the cold water pot. The more that came out of the boiling water, the faster the rest seemed to cook. By the time they were all done, he was stirring all the way to the bottom just to be sure he didn't miss any. He added in the other half of the spice mix and bent to lift the remaining crabs to pour them in. He had to jump back a little to avoid being splashed. "All right. I guess we start cleaning them now?"