How to eat Maryland Blue Crabs?
- Twist off the legs and claws off the body.
- Pull off the apron (the flap located on the abdomen).
- Turn the crab over and pull upward on the shell from the back of the crab peeling it forward.
- Grab each side firmly and bend in the middle, breaking in half.
- Pick the meat from each half.
While we often boil or steam our blue crabs whole, sometimes its easier to clean them before cooking. Cleaning the crab also allows seasoning flavors to soak into the body meat as they cook. This method of cleaning a crab is simply a matter of popping off the back shell then using a hose to spray out the insides.
The most important thing about cooking blue crab to note is that you cannot cook crabs that are dead; as soon as they die they start to rot and become toxic. If you are cooking fresh crabs, they must be alive. We also want to cook our live crabs in the most humane way possible.
The yellow “mustard” is called the hepatopancreas, which is a main component of the blue crab's digestive system. It is edible and considered a delicacy to some, but often thrown away. Break the crab in half. Once it is broken in half, break each half in half again.
By keeping blue crabs in a cool, moist, and stress-free environment, you will be able to help blue crabs stay alive. Place the crabs in a cooler or a bushel basket that is layered with ice packs and covered with a moist burlap sack.
Cook the crabs for about 18-20 minutes, depending on size. The crabs are done when they turn orange and the meat flakes when tested with a fork. Carefully remove the crabs from the pot with clean tongs and serve on a platter with a sprinkling of seafood seasoning and some lemon wedges.
Crabs have well-developed senses of sight, smell, and taste, and research indicates that they have the ability to sense pain. They have two main nerve centers, one in the front and one to the rear, and—like all animals who have nerves and an array of other senses—they feel and react to pain.
Place the crab directly into the boiling water, if its shell is intact, and cover the pot with a lid. Boil for five minutes per pound of crab you are heating.
There are three easy steps:
- Bring an inch of salted water to a boil in a large pot.
- Put the crabs in a steamer basket or insert or simply pile them into the pot and let the bottom crabs boil slightly and act as a platform for the other crabs to steam.
- Cover and cook 10 to 20 minutes, depending on the size of the crabs.
2 Steam the crab legs: Set a steamer tray inside a large pot and pour enough water inside to steam the crab. Remember, you are only reheating the crab, so you will only need about an inch of water, tops. Bring this to a boil before laying the crab legs on the steamer. Cover the pot and steam for 5 minutes.
When you steam crabs, adding some vinegar to the water helps to keep the meat from sticking to the shell.
