How many of you clean your crabs before cooking? I used to just drop them in the boiling water, live and whole, and let them cook. I read somewhere about killing them first, cleaning them and then boiling them. There is a difference. The taste and color of the cleaned crab is better, in my opinion. So, how many do this? Also, does anybody have any other special things to do with crab at cooking time?

Good topic, I'm looking forward to seeing the responses.

I've always cooked them live, in the shell. But last week while I was cooking some, I remembered watching a video a long time ago that showed them being killed and cleaned before they were cooked. I think the video was made by Charlie White, and in the video the body meat came out much easier, and I think he said the meat tasted better as well. Next time I'm going to try it that way.

We feel that the key is cooking them in "their"
water from the sea. being halfway dormant and being consistent in the timing of 20 minutes and immediately
dropping them in cold water. If we bring them all the way home, we have enough sea water to take care of the job.
We rarely buy crab at the supermarkets because
once you are used to catching your own, the others
taste bland. Further, if you have someone cook them at the beach, frequently yours is the 100th
crab to be cooked in the same water as many before you. Ice, ice ice....even if you are eating
them in the next 3 days, keep them iced in the refrigerator. Good eating.

Forgot.,,,
How do you kill them first??? We are probably
going to have PETA all over us for stressing the
crab.

When we cook crabs, we remove the shell and all the guts, rinse and then cook the crab. The whole crab is still intact, minus the shell.
You can use a cup of sea salt( depending on the amount of crabs) for 10 quarts of water.
When you do this you don't get that funky foam and smell in the pan. good luck.

OK..Does the back just remove really easily and when you are doing this to that poor soul...
WHAT are the claws doing??

As a person addicted to eating crab at least once per week...Hood Canal Breakfast...I cook them whole...love that funky foamy stinky water....use seawater if you can get it! I'm starten my own grassroots group...PETC...guess what that means? :p

yes it does, and Hold the crab right it pops right off and u wont get pinched.

You can take an axe and just lop them in half, that pretty much kills them....

We've cleaned them a couple of times before cooking but we tend to default to cleaning them afterwards. I haven't really noticed a difference in taste however I wasn't really paying that much attention either.

I agree that once you've had fresh crab it is impossible to eat that stuff from the store. Sort of makes you a crab snob....

funny this comes up at this time, were up in the islands this weekend, caught some real nice crab right at 7" well cooking on board was slow for the first crab we cooked with the shells on, so while waiting to return to a boil we cleaned the others, well to say the least, night and day nobody wanted to even touch the crab cooked with the shells on, , the crab that was cleaned first was so much sweeter, the other hand funky yellow water when you cracked into the legs, and by the way the cleaned crab was cooked in the same water as the ones with the shells on, never again with the shells on there really is a big differance, doug

goose ----------people eating tasty crab??????????? RIGHT??

I had a 'bud' once who split them in half over a shovel blade and shook out the innards and tossed them in the boilng water---------I on the other hand preferred cleaning them after they were dead!!!!!!

Periwinkle's bud hit it right. Use a square point shovel, split them into two. Remove the top shell. Next, grab the pinchers and legs in one hand and pretend your using a hatchet and shake on firm strok downwards- watch out guts! This will pretty much get all the innards out, but you'll need to fine tune the insides under some cold water...

As far as cooking... throw all the halves into the pot, add a little Johnny's and allspice, turn stove on high. When the water hit a boil, remove your feast and munch away.

Downriggin :p

Try adding a tablespoon of pickling spice to the water before boiling. It gives the meat a very mild but killer flavor! Old family secret... Someone is probably rolling over right now :p

Periwinkle definitely knows how to eat crab!!!!!!

Clean first then steam for 18 to 20 mins. steaming keeps the flavor in.

how i clean them is, hold all legs including the claws, underneath the shell, and find some blunt but flat object, such as a railing, or a cement block, and in one downward, slighty tilt the crab and wham the shell, eyes first, and kinda pull it towards you as your whacking the crab into the block, it will pop the shell off, and jus clean out the rest.. **berkley boy**

Oh gawd. You couldn't pay me enough $$$ to eat a crabe that was cooked whole. Nasty!

Can you say TOXINS? Hmmmm. The crab muscle is fine, it's the gut and shell exterior that you need to consider. Whatever is in that gut, and on that shell, will now be in your nice clean meat, when cooked. I guess that is one of the downsides to having a fisheries degree. Some knowledge I wish I just didn't have....

I always clean the crabes first. Do was Berkley Boy75 said to do. Or, if you're good, you can grab half the legs with one hand, and with the other, reach down and grab the lower side of the carapus and lift up. The crabes top will pop right off. Gotta be quick, or the crabes tend to reach over with their free pincher and whack your finger! I do this at a dock, or beach, where I don't have access to a bucket. Once the crabe has had it's noggen knocked off, split the crabe in half over the bucket. This will give you a handfull of legs in each hand. Clean out the gills and shake any and all guts out of each section. Wash each half THOROUGHLY in cold, fresh water. Use your fingers, or a sponge and wash the exterior of the crab. Re-rinse.

In boiling water with a cup full of sea-salt added, boil the crab halfs for 8 minutes. Yummy!

PS. Any raw oyster eaters out there? Probably should re-consider, and cook them first. You won't find *ANY ONE* at the UW School of Aquatic & Fishery Sciences eating raw oysters any more (Ok, except Ken Chew. . Recent, and compelling studies are showing that there are many nasties in raw oyesters. So much so, that you should be concerned....thats *all* oysters in our state in *all* waters.

I clean them like Berkley Boy...grab them by the legs and claws and whack them on the edge of a 5 gallon bucket. Both sides of the crab pull away from the shell and with a little rinsing are ready to cook. The thing I like best is that you can cook twice the number of crab in the same size pot and no more burning your hands trying to clean a hot crab.

this is some good info. i was always told by my grandpa that you had to boil them alive. i think i'll try cleaning the next batch i get.

Geez Parker I wouldn't eat any crab caught off the Seattle waterfront...cleaned or not !
Of course over here on Hood Canal we don't have that worry...sorry guys but I like the taste of funky yellow crab butter infused crab meat. But to each their own barbarous preferences.

Sure goose, nothing to worry about.

That aside, that whole crab butter thing is queebin' me out!

Berkeley and Parker are right on about this one...

I also use the "hold the legs/pinchers and whack 'em on the edge of a board" technique. Pop off the shell, shake off the guts, pull off the gills, and give them a good rinse in cold water. Do this within minutes of when you're going to cook them, and do your darndest to keep them lively until then.

Next, 7-9 minutes in water that is really boiling hard, preferably sea water, with a good dose of pickling spices dumped in.

Besides tasting better and removing most possible toxins, they cook a lot faster. The water tends to lose its boil pretty quick if you toss in a whole crab. You can also cook two or three crabs at a time, rather than one.

A quick reminder...if you do this in the field, keep the carapaces and abdomens on hand until you leave so you can prove the size/sex of your catch to the gamies. And don't forget to mark your punchcard for dungeness!

Also, my last couple of times out I've found that my usual supply of hatchery steelhead/silver carcasses is still working well, but that a small can of salmon flavored cat food with a dozen holes knocked in it along with the fish carcasses has really been the ticket. I think the super oiliness of the cat food gets 'em in, and then the presence of the salmon keeps 'em there.

Fish on...

Todd.

Another vote for cleaning first.

Grab all legs and claws in each hand,use a table corner,water spigot any such object,place the shell right above the eyes press in and down hard and fast.

Clean and boil in seawater or freshwater and rocksalt,dip in garlic butter and lemon juice,must be what heavens like.

Bunch of crab cleaning Phillistines! :p Oops did I say that?
Sorry guys...I'll go back to eating my whole cooked tainted crab in secret.

good tips. I have done it both ways. I did learn a little trick last year on our beach trip from a guy who crabs everyday.

After cleaning the crab (before cooking), he takes a small knife and sticks it into each joint in the crab. This allows your spicy water to enter all parts of the crab. It takes a few extra minutes but it is worth it.

Give it a try.

Giz...

So now tell the truth --- do you leg and claw grabbin dudes still have all of your fingers and thumbs intact?? Are your hands large enough to "palm" beach balls?? Does this technique require "liquid" fortification prior to 'crunch time'??

Sounds like a great method if you're not chicken-------cockle doodle doo!!!!!!!!

Boy, this just goes to show ya that it takes all kind to make the world go round....... Interesting posts. I have tried it both ways and found the crab that was cleaned before cooking to be bland in flavor. I went back to cooking whole and feel it is a far tastier product. But some guys fish with spinning reels too...........

Hey Parker,
do all you guys with fisheries degrees spell it crabes?

Hey Fishbait do you ever see those guys who fish with their spinning reel upwards? Kinda of reminds me of cleaning crab before cooking :p :p :p :p :p :p :p :p

Crab butter........Yum.....

All I can say is, it must have been a HUNGRY person, that first person that ate a crab, shrimp, or lobster.

A couple of years ago, as a hobby, I had a large chilled saltwater aquarium, and I stocked the whole thing with stuff only from Puget Sound. Once you watch what crabs and shrimp do day after day, you sort of lose your appetite for them... believe me.

Put some cooked, cleaned, cracked crabmeat in front of me, though, and I still can't resist it.
I've yet to explore the taste differences between cooking pre and post cleaning, I've always just cleaned them before cooking, because, like others have said, you can fit way more crabs in the cook pot. That smelly foam is sort of disgusting, too, but hell, so is lots of other stuff we eat all the time.

-N.

That spelling was from a Red Meat Cartoon:

Early was quoted as saying, "Oh no, crabes."

Of course, he was referring to the crab-like critters that he managed to pick up after sleeping with some street wh@re.

www.readmeat.com

PS. Rooster cooked up a damn tasty batch of crabes at his BBQ. Used some fancy cajun seasonings, or something. Was really darn good!

was talking to a guy the other day and suggested adding a packet of taco seasoning to the water, kinda of came to mind when parker mentioned cajun

Moving this to this thread because it is such a tasty treat.
For a splurge: Well worth it and very impressive!
Phillips canned crab at Costco which is vaccum
packed and kept refrigerated. (in their cold meat section) But if you are lucky enough to have caught your own Dungeness crab, use it, too.
This has to be either fresh or vaccum packed crab, not the small cans you get in the markets.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1.Take a whole loaf of French bread.
2.Cut it in half lengthwise..top and bottom half.
Put each piece on aluminum foil that can be
closed.
3.Take one can of crab which is about one pound
and mix it with a dab of mayonaise (about 3-4 T)
so that it sticks together.
4.Butter the bread.
5.Sprinkle with garlic powder.
6.Spread Cheezewhiz (yes that's right..cheeze
whiz)on top of both pieces.
7.Sprinkle with parsely and paprika for Christmas
greenery.
8.Close the foil and bake in hot over at
375 or 400 degrees til hot all the way through.

Slice loaf into pieces.

Our family tradition for a great treat on Christmas Eve with clam chowder and more fresh crab.

I was wonderin' how to clean them and keep my fingers intact, and I was shown a trick, lay them on their back and whack them in the center with something like a large screwdriver handle. Stuns them good, legs all relax, and you can pop the top shell off and clean/rinse them out painlessly.

On little sneaky cat feet, I hear PETA comin'.