Cleaning Crabs
Large Crabs - Dungeness, Mud, Rock, others
When I trap crabs or if I need to buy crabs I prefer to get live crabs because I can clean them before cooking them. Most places, like Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco boil the Dungeness Crab prior to cleaning them. Some Chinese friends of mine years ago taught me to clean the crabs before cooking them because they would taste fresher and "cleaner". They were right! I use an old broken Henckels knife and a regular hammer to kill and divide the crabs.
Cut in two
First place the knife or a cleaver in the middle of the underside of the live crab and strike the knife or cleaver with the hammer cutting the crab into two pieces.
Cleaning crab is quite easy!
Now - into four pieces
Then cut each half in half placing the knife with the three small legs on one side and the other leg and pincher on the other side.
Next, take the cut crabs where you can clean them. I use the kitchen sink with the cold water running. Remove the shells and gills and the brown stuff so only the white meat is left in the shell. This Dungeness Crab is now ready to cook in my crab steamer.
Blue Crab
1. Break off the main claws where they join the body
2. Pry off the top shell
3. Remove the gills and discard them
4. Go to work on the backfin meat, found in the compartments of the body
5. Remove the smaller claws and suck out the meat inside
From The Compleat Crabber by Christopher R. Reaske
2. Pry off the top shell
3. Remove the gills and discard them
4. Go to work on the backfin meat, found in the compartments of the body
5. Remove the smaller claws and suck out the meat inside
From The Compleat Crabber by Christopher R. Reaske
From docscrabs.com
How to Eat Crabs
There are various opinions on how to eat crabs but here is one method.
First remove the legs and claws. Snap the legs in half and squeeze the meat out of the shell.
Crack open the claws with a crab mallet hitting the claw just hard enough to crack the shell. Peel back the cracked shell and expose the claw meat on all sides sliding the meat off the inner cartilage with your fingers.
Lift the bottom apron of the crab and pull off the top shell.
Remove the gills, crab fat, better know as the crab mustard and discard (some people eat the crab mustard since the fat can be the most flavorful part of the crab).
Snap the body of the crab into two pieces, the left and right side. With a small sharp knife, cut each side of the crab horizontally. This will expose the chambers of meat allowing for easy removal.
Stone Crab
Most people eat only the claws of the Stone Crab.
Simply remove the claws and break open the claw with a small hammer or knife handle and remove the meat.
Some fancy restaurants cut the claw with a power saw to display the meat.
For a video on cleaning Stone Crab see: http://www.ehow.com/video_2335959_cracking-florida-stone-crab-claw.html
Simply remove the claws and break open the claw with a small hammer or knife handle and remove the meat.
Some fancy restaurants cut the claw with a power saw to display the meat.
For a video on cleaning Stone Crab see: http://www.ehow.com/video_2335959_cracking-florida-stone-crab-claw.html
King Crab and Snow Crab
Good News - nothing to clean!
After cooking the legs simply use kitchen shears or a knife to cut the shell to remove the meat. These are the easiest crabs to get the meat out of.
Almost all the King Crab and Snow Crab you can get in a restaurant has been frozen because most crab fishers put the crab on ice or quick freeze the crabs as soon as they are caught. The best King Crab I ever ate was this July at the Twisted Fish Restaurant in Juneau, Alaska. Although they said it was previously frozen, it tasted great! Perhaps most of what we buy at local supermarkets is old and possibly thawed and refrozen.