Comments on: Crab Cleaning 101

By: Stephen

Stephen — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 12:24:45 +0000

Hi everybody,

shared my experience. I have 3 times eaten crabs in Manila homes and noticed something in common. Whether it is fried or barbequed..i noticed it is black in there.
I then realised on spot that they did not do it correctly in killing and cleaning up the crab.
What you have described above is typical of what we Singaporeans Chinese do when we kill the crab (1) stab the crab at underbelly at the triangle belly shell (we do with a chopstick) like you say knife is also ok.
Do the same for the rest. (2)After few mins ripped off the shell and cut the crab into half. (3) Clean up the crab with a brush (the black color) and the pull out the grey gills)
After this cleaning procedure, you cook it or especially BBQ the crab is so clean inside and sweet and sumptous.

I showed my friend how I kill and clean the crab!! the correct way and no reason to be blackish in the meat..hehehhehe

By: woon

woon — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 02:41:10 +0000

hi all crab lovers!

Here’s an easier and more humane way to prepare a crab.

Put the crab into the freezer for about 30~45 minutes (depending on size of crab). Use a plastic bag to contain it, although usually it does not run around. Do not leave it too long as frozen crab loses it best original taste and texture.

Under the cold temperature, the crab goes into hibernation mode. After about 30~45 minutes, take the crab out. Make sure the crab is not moving (assumed dead), then do the usual thing, ie. remove the strings, top shells etc.

The normal way of plunging a chopstick or knife at bottom of thorax most of the time makes the crab struggle and have their legs and pincers naturally drop off. The killer sweats, the crab cries, together they struggle. Not a graceful way of killing a crab and not so neat for presentation for dining guests should the legs and pincers comes off before cooking.

cheers!

By: Mr. Balingit

Mr. Balingit — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 05:40:35 +0000

we can supply crabs fresh from fishponds and of great taste,pls contact me at 09282512225

By: Marketman

Marketman — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 05:03:49 +0000

Hi Tom. Not cleaning a fresh crab properly then cooking it will simply result in a more murky tasting crab meat. However, cooking a bad or spoiled crab is a different matter. Crab spoils VERY QUICKLY. It is the reason that I only have crabs if I get them ALIVE. Many fish mongers in the U.S. sell lump crab meat. This is steamed in bulk from presumably, very fresh crabs. The Philippines, where I am located, is a major supplier to freshly steamed crab meat to places like Japan. Steamed crab meat properly packaged and frozen or refrigerated should last for several days. But if at any point in its handling it warms up, I think it spoils fairly quickly. It might be possible that you simply had a BAD batch of crab meat in your crab cakes. It is also possible that you got food poisoning from many other sources of food that day… Some folks in the Philippines, steam whole crabs with fingers and all intact, removing the entrails after cooking and there are no ill-effects. I would more likely believe that the crab meat itself was suspect… but I couldn’t be sure at all. Eating bad shellfish, mussels, crabs, shrimp, etc. always results in wicked stomach problems for me…perhaps that is what you experienced…

By: TOM

TOM — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 04:53:50 +0000

ENJOYED YOUR PIECE ON CLEANING CRABS. HAD WONDERFUL CRABCAKES LAST WEEK AND GOT DEATHLY SICK. NAUSEA, CONSTIPATION,HOT & COLD FLASHES, LOSS OF ENERGY, LATHARGIC,ETC. AM DOING RESEARCH TO FIND OUT IF CRAB COULD NOT HAVE BEEN CLEANED PROPERLY & DEAD MAN LEFT IN? WHAT ARE AFFECTS OF EATING BAD CRAB? DO YOU HAVE AND SOURCES WHERE I COULD FIND OUT? TOM

By: crystal

crystal — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 21:37:20 +0000

my father and i recently went crabbing in washington state and cought quite a few dungeness crab. we brought them home right away and cooked them in boiling water. one of our crabs however after being cooked was completely black inside not just in its body but in its legs and claws as well. after looking all over the web i still havent been able to find out why? the crab was still alive when it was tossed in the pot and was cooked completely and everything. got any ideas?

By: J. Francisco Bautista

J. Francisco Bautista — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 01:44:56 +0000

here’s the link to the entire chinese cooking series:

https://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=75962

By: J. Francisco Bautista

J. Francisco Bautista — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 01:43:10 +0000

No problem – the author of the thread really gets into the art of giving away the secrets of authentic resto-style chinese food, very indispensable part of my cooking regimen – did you check out the rest of his cooking pictorial series? btw, your site is chockfull of information too!

By: Marketman

Marketman — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 22:19:55 +0000

Thanks J. Francisco for that link!

By: J. Francisco Bautista

J. Francisco Bautista — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 19:43:44 +0000

Marketman, here’s another informative link on how to do the same thing to Dungeness Crabs

https://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=79806&hl=clean+crab