crab

[Aces]

I like the body meat best so I boil whole then clean afterwards.

I'm pretty sure there is a new regulation this year that you can't clean the crabs before you take them home so cooking them whole is the best way to go

 

[rovingfisherman]

I like the body meat best so I boil whole then clean afterwards.

You get the exact same meat (body) whether cleaned before or after cooking. Just seams odd that you would want to deal with guts and that mess with something you are about to eat. Kinda like throwing a salmon on the BBQ before you've gutted it. To each there own I guess.


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[fishspoon]

catching crabs and take them home in a bucket with saltwater....they are alive until I throw them in hot boiling water big metal pot...hate to see them screaming to death in the hot boiling water. :O

 

[twogone]

I'm trying very hard to remember by biology from UVic (early 60's)........ The salinity of sea water is very similar to the salinity of animal cell contents so there is not much ozmosis going on (trying to equalize the salinity through the cell walls (a semipermiable membrane). Most creatures that live in the sea do not have a mechanism inside their cells called a contractile vacuole. This little mechanism is like a little pump that expells excess water. If there is little or no ozmosis happening, there isn't much excess water so there is no need for contractile vacuoles. Fresh water creatures however, need them because the salinity of the water they live in is almost zero but their cell contents is not. Consequently the fresh water rushes into the cells in an effort to equalize the salinity and without the vacuoles to pump it back out, eventually the cell would explode. Crabs can probably live a short while in fresh or brackish water but my guess is, taken from salt water and dumped into a bucket of freash water would probably kill them pretty fast, oxygen added or not. Additionally, as someone has already mentioned, the meat fills up with water (by ozmosis) and isn't very nice to eat. If you are going to try to keep them alive in a bucket of water, it must be cool, salt and either changed frequently or oxygen added (like the bubbler in an aquarium). Years ago a friend caught a huge ling cod at the mouth of a river. It had come there to feed on pink salmon and had probably been doing so for some time. We cooked some of it for dinner and it was bloody awful. No flavor and the flesh was like mush. If you have a microscope, take some seaweed and look at it at a power where you can see the cells then add a drop of fresh water; you can actually watch the cells explode. Fresh water creatures can live in salt water (the vacuoles just stop working (like with salmon) but most salt water creatures can not live in fresh water (for any length of time). My memory isn't that great and I hope I haven't screwed this all up. If I have , my apologies and thankfully, most likley my old professor is not reading this. Cheers.

 

[cabazon]

Crab cleaning

My friend has 3 nice size male crabs., He didnt cook them. He wanted to cook them tomorrow ( today) , but the crabs are dead. he should cook them right now. I said I have no idea but I assume that dont eat them when they are dead.

Any feedback about his dead crabs and what he do with his three dead crabs?

Thanks
Discus.

Use rubber gloves and grab live crab from the back slipping fingers between claws and body shell up. Now on a chopping block or large rock or table swing downward and knock off the shell, then give it a big swing shake between your legs and break the body in to 2 halves .Make sure you are outside!
Wipe off the remaining frills. Crab is way better cooked without the guts in but if you insist on tradition, cook and cool with shell down. I also never use salt water or sea water to cook crab. Always fresh only.. unlike prawns. I say it ruins the delicate great flavor of my favorite seafood. Dungeness crab is my choice as no 1 shellfish .

 

[JuandeOne]

You get the exact same meat (body) whether cleaned before or after cooking. Just seams odd that you would want to deal with guts and that mess with something you are about to eat. Kinda like throwing a salmon on the BBQ before you've gutted it. To each there own I guess.


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............X2

 

[eroyd]

You get the exact same meat (body) whether cleaned before or after cooking. Just seams odd that you would want to deal with guts and that mess with something you are about to eat. Kinda like throwing a salmon on the BBQ before you've gutted it. To each there own I guess.

I found that a lot of the flavour is diluted and meat water logged if you clean first, exposing meant to boiling water. Much of the gross stuff inside is eaten by some, especially on the East coast or Europe. It's shell fish, not salmon.

 

[mhbradley]

People cook Lobster whole and uncleaned, so why not crab?

People also eat the innards and guts of said lobsters, so again, why not crab?

I don't do this, but I have seen it done.

 

[tubber]

Whole crab in a huge pot of clean seawater cooked outdoors on a propane cooker is ideal. Return the slop to the pot and dump it straight back into the ocean after the meal. All the other methods are a compromise.

 

[Dennis.t]

The best way to enjoy crab is to catch, clean and boil for about 10 mins or so in a big pot of seawater over a fire on the beach, sipping on a cold beer. So fresh and tasty you don't need even need butter when done this way. We have one or two crab cookouts every summer. A great occasion to relax and enjoy friends and family.

 

[wolf]

I never boil mine I clean them then I steam them in a big pot ... everyone that ive served it to NEVER go back to boiling crab...

very easy to do contains 1 cup white wine, garlic,fresh herb (cilantro or Dill),lemon juice,olive oil, grated ginger and S&P

Segregate the claws from the body throw everything in a big pot get it hot shaking all the while so the legs and stuff get tossed about 8 mins of steam.from the wine when done dig in and eat when all the crab is done then get some nice bread (baguette) and dip in the sauce and get the bits of crab and ginger and garlic etc .... then burp afterwards

trust me its damn good

Wolf
try it.....

 

[Pippen]

Roy.....is the time to steam much different than boiling?

The steam/sauce bits underneath the crab sounds like they'd be a great dipping sauce for crab AND bread!

 

[trendsetter]

Whole crab in a huge pot of clean seawater cooked outdoors on a propane cooker is ideal. Return the slop to the pot and dump it straight back into the ocean after the meal. All the other methods are a compromise.

This is my preferred method of cooking also. Way more crab flavour this way. Cleaning the crab first then cooking is also good but best if you add seasoning etc to the water or steam.

 

[rovingfisherman]

I never boil mine I clean them then I steam them in a big pot ... everyone that ive served it to NEVER go back to boiling crab...

very easy to do contains 1 cup white wine, garlic,fresh herb (cilantro or Dill),lemon juice,olive oil, grated ginger and S&P

Segregate the claws from the body throw everything in a big pot get it hot shaking all the while so the legs and stuff get tossed about 8 mins of steam.from the wine when done dig in and eat when all the crab is done then get some nice bread (baguette) and dip in the sauce and get the bits of crab and ginger and garlic etc .... then burp afterwards

trust me its damn good

Wolf
try it.....

That sounds great, definitely will be giving that a try.
Cheers


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[Klob]

Clean and steam with a little salted water. Also like to throw some ginger and garlic in. The remaining nectar can be used as stock or for making some crab rice.

 

[the fog ducker]

I'm pretty sure there is a new regulation this year that you can't clean the crabs before you take them home so cooking them whole is the best way to go

trying to make sense of this rule , crabs are like rats of the sea ,
they cycle quickly , and reproduce like rabbits
in our area out west , weve always had easy limits of crab year round around Sarita ,
even in the summer , never an issue , BUT , now that
commercial boat laid his hundreds of pots this past spring, there is almost zero males left ???
, not even under size ?? wtf ,
our pots all stuffed with females , did they keep the undersize males too ?? relocate them somewhere lol
alot of concern around the docks ,,,,,,wtf happened ,

my point , they should be less concerned about sportys taken home a few to eat ,
i clean all my crab the day of transport , keep all the crab in a countable fashion in a separate chilled cooler ,
with all the hoods in a separate bag for them to measure , pretty sure dfo recognizes whether they
are fresh kills , hoods still full of inners dangling ??? cmon... , can understand if they were dried out , and used for
transporting under size crabs ??? who would go outta there way to do that , yes there are always idiots out there
cheating , but enuff to change the regs on us ???
its the commercial management id be more concerned with
they should't be allowed to hit an area that hard , limit there area catch !!! ????
looked like an exploded bubble gum machine out there in the Spring this year !!!

m2b

fd

 

[wolf]

Roy.....is the time to steam much different than boiling?

I do it for about 8 mins or so you can tell by looking and Yes it is VERY yummy first time I did it for the GF she told me never to boil it again... LOL
just make sure there is lots of wine in it to steam depending on the width of your pot you may need to add more wine min 1/2 inch of wine on the bottom.

Good luck Wolf

 

[Cuba Libre]

trying to make sense of this rule , crabs are like rats of the sea ,
they cycle quickly , and reproduce like rabbits
in our area out west , weve always had easy limits of crab year round around Sarita ,
even in the summer , never an issue , BUT , now that
commercial boat laid his hundreds of pots this past spring, there is almost zero males left ???
, not even under size ?? wtf ,
our pots all stuffed with females , did they keep the undersize males too ?? relocate them somewhere lol
alot of concern around the docks ,,,,,,wtf happened ,

my point , they should be less concerned about sportys taken home a few to eat ,
i clean all my crab the day of transport , keep all the crab in a countable fashion in a separate chilled cooler ,
with all the hoods in a separate bag for them to measure , pretty sure dfo recognizes whether they
are fresh kills , hoods still full of inners dangling ??? cmon... , can understand if they were dried out , and used for
transporting under size crabs ??? who would go outta there way to do that , yes there are always idiots out there
cheating , but enuff to change the regs on us ???
its the commercial management id be more concerned with
they should't be allowed to hit an area that hard , limit there area catch !!! ????
looked like an exploded bubble gum machine out there in the Spring this year !!!

m2b

fd

Unfortunately, the rec crab fishery has had a history of abusive users, especially around Vancouver/Richmond.
"cmon... , can understand if they were dried out , and used for
transporting under size crabs ??? who would go outta there way to do that"

 

[the fog ducker]

my comment was with a bit of tongue n cheek there
" Abusive " thats an f'n understatement ,
its called greed ,

#$$$$BS

fd

( sorry for venting on your thread , im out )

Unfortunately, the rec crab fishery has had a history of abusive users, especially around Vancouver/Richmond.
"cmon... , can understand if they were dried out , and used for
transporting under size crabs ??? who would go outta there way to do that"