Jonah crabs

Crab names are pretty easy to fathom: King crabs can weigh up to 15 pounds. Snow crabs come from the chilly climes of eastern Canada. Dungeness crabs live near a town of the same name on Washington state's Olympic Peninsula. Stone crabs have rocklike shells, blue crabs have blue ones, and golden crabs have pale yellow flesh.

Since the biblical story of Jonah was about a man and a whale, the name of the Jonah crab, found off the coast of the Northeast and on tables all over Boston, isn't obvious. Peter Prime, vice president of New England Crab Company, says the name came from lobstermen who were disappointed when they caught crabs instead of lobster. Since the two crustaceans don't hang out together, the presence of one meant an unlikely spot to find the other.

``They considered the crab bad luck," Prime says, invoking the definition of Jonah as a jinx. ``If they pulled up their gear, and it was full of crab, they went somewhere else." That is, until they started tasting them and found that the Jonah crabs, much like the Dungeness and stones to whom they are related, were delicious. The name stuck, but the stigma didn't. Prime's company, which sells to such restaurants as Legal Sea Foods, deals exclusively with Jonah crabs.

Chefs use the crabs in all manner of preparations, from cakes to soups. At the Harvest in Harvard Square, executive chef Keith Pooler keeps things simple, putting Jonah claws on his raw-bar menu for $16 a pound. No jinx-related incidents have been reported. Harvest, 44 Brattle St., Cambridge, 617-868-2255, www.harvestcambridge.com. -- JOE YONAN