How to Eat Crab
By LeonJane
The photos in this hub shows a couple of mud crabs which I have cooked. They are cooked the only way I like to eat them, which is cooked in a broth, so I can enjoy its natural flavor.
When you eat crab this way it can be very messy. This can add to the dining experience as you and your partner try to avoid the juice spraying out from cracking the shell. This mainly occurs when you crack the nippers. Usually I crack the nippers by laying them in the palm of my hand and striking the top side with a metal meat tenderizer. So you can imagine the noise and commotion when I finally crack the shell and juice from inside sprays out.
Okay so you want to know how to cook the crabs first?
In a large pot of boiling water add a handful of rock salt, a splash of vinegar and a couple of drops of Tabasco sauce. You can add other ingredient here but that’s about all I add. These ingredients will enhance the natural flavors of the crab meat.
Add your uncooked crab to this boiling broth and cook for about 15 minutes per crab. When the time is up take the crab out of the broth with tongs and put it straight into your sink or a container with icy water. This will prevent the crab cooking in its shell. Remember if the crab cooks longer than 15 minutes it will usually over cook and the meat will become tougher.
Also mud crabs in Australia have to be 15cm (6 inches) across the back, so for smaller crabs you’ll have to reduce the cooking time. But if you cook them in batches you might have to adjust your time to suit. My basic rule of thumb is 15 minutes per mud crab.
Also if your crab is live please do the humane thing and put him on ice so it slows his metabolism down and he goes into hibernation before you put him into the boiling broth. (I say him all the time because in Australia we can only keep male crabs – called bucks). Being thrown into boiling water with his legs and nippers flailing everywhere can be quite cruel.
Now lets eat!
Learn how to catch crabs!
If you are interested to know some of the tricks and tips on how to catch these crabs than please click on this link to my hub page, "Let's go Crabbing!"
Once the crab is cooled down it’s quite easy to brake apart. Take the top shell off first by pulling from the sides. This will expose its innards which are termed “dead mans fingers” as they appear as grey finger like organs which wrap over the internal frame. These can be pulled off and I discard these. I clean out this part of the crab under a tap and loosen off all the soft offal. Turn the crab over and break away the reproductive cover plate. This forms at the back of the crab and extends to the centre. You will notice two furry probes to the outer of this cover plate, near the legs. These can be removed; these are the two penises that the male crab has! From here you can split the crab in half serve.
With whatever method you use, whether it’s with your fingers of a little fork to dig into the body frame and scoop the meat out. Break the nippers with your tools, and suck the meat off the centre skeleton blade within the nipper. You’ll notice quite a different flavor from the body meat to the nipper meat. Most people thing the nipper meat can be quite sweet.
It all sounds quite gross and messy but once you have one crab you’ll be hooked on the decadent flavor and wont want to stop at one!
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Have you ever eaten crab?
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Comments
Another succulent hub! I grew up steaming the crabs and dipping the meat into a mixture of hot butter, garlic and ginger. Oh, which should I have first? Prawns or crab? mmm
I uusally leave my crab cooking to red lobster! Neat hub!
Now I have to go out and buy a crab, they're high price here. Thanks! :)
One trick I learned too quite by accident is to use normal every day scissors (washed of course) to cut open the shell especially the legs. It makes it so much easier to get all the meat out. The claws too but sometimes the claws are a little harder and you need the crackers.
Thanks Lorraine Arams, I never thought of using scissors. Sometimes I find that the shell is quite thin and brittle. It must be something to do with timing of when the crab is caught and when the crab has shed its shell for a new one.
I love crab very much. We normally cook it with onion, garlic and other spices. But this one is more healthy.
A very nice hub and nice pictures also. Thanks for sharing.
Hi cupid51, your mix sounds tasty. Every time we see a cooking show where they use crab as the main ingredient we think to ourselves, "that recipe would be nice to try." But after we catch the crabs we just love the natural taste of crab meat, and have them cooked as I have described. Thanks for your kind comment.
Making 3 1.5 kilogram mud crabs tonight! can't wait!
Sounds like a feast, thanks Chloe for your comment.
Eating crab is fun and you will get more fun by catching them. You have to run fast like an athlete to catch those sprinters from sea shores. Try it 'a total entertainment'.
Thanks again for your comment dinkan53, these Mud Crab run a lot slower than your beach sand crabs but good luck in catching them!
I love seafood especially crabs. To avoid the juice from spraying out and hurting your palm, use paper napkins or paper towels to sandwich the claws/nippers when you crack them with your tool.
Thanks for your advice and comment Rainbow6!
I have found minimum cooking time is 11 minutes, and up to 15 for a large one.
I too use this method of cooking however I think it's important to add one tip.
When you have finished cooking the crab and put in an ice slurry to cool, make sure you put some additional salt in your sink or bucket at this point otherwise you will wash out all the salt and they will lose flavour!
Once you lift the shell off and all the 'finger' abducters are exposed and you pull these off and clean up the innards, you can apply a bit of pressure if you're careful to crack the shell in hald straight down the centre, makes it easy to pick it apart.
If you really want to get hooked on these, cook the crab just under and then toss through in a wok with chili crab mix.
Google chili crab singapore style and you cant go wrong!!! It's my favourite :)
Happy eating!!
Thanks for your great advice steve, i'll have to give your chilli crab mix a try!
thank for your great facts about it
dohn121 2 years ago
My mouth was watering the entire time I was reading this. In Laos, we have this succulent recipe involving coconut milk and curry as a method of cooking these delicious crustaceans. This is such useful information! I really like how you are so thorough with your walk-through. Thanks!