How to
Clean and Cook Live Crabs to Perfection
So you've caught some crabs
or brought live crabs from the fishmonger and now got
them home. You'll need to think about cleaning your crab first
before making some of those delicious
crab recipes you've been
reading about. Crabs are not known to be clean creatures and the
water they are stored in is normally not that fresh, so we will want
to scrub them down first.
Cleaning a live crab
can be a little daunting or even downright scary to a novice. Those
big claws are trying to nip you and you know damn well how painful
it's going to be if they get hold. Try wearing some gloves giving
yourself a little more confidence in getting started. You'll need a
general household scrubbing brush ideally with the handle on top;
this makes it easy to hold allowing you to get a lot more vertical
force.
Start
by getting the crab into the sink or tub. The crab is going to
try and stay upright and threaten you with its intimidating claws,
so ideally get the crab facing away from you and get the water
running onto it and then using one of your palms, push firmly on the
outer shell or carapace to hold it down. Crabs are strong for their
size, so don't take it too easy on them. Apply high pressure and
with your spare
hand grab the brush and start scrubbing the carapace
really hard with the fresh water running over it. This will get rid
of the accumulated grime and at the same time make the crab almost
dizzy, so keep scrubbing hard until the back is clean and in turn
there shouldn't be any movement from its legs or claws indicating
that you've stunned it a little. It's going to be much easier to
flip them over and clean the underside now too. Give its body and
legs a further good scrubbing, whilst still being prepared for the
crab to snap out of its trance unexpectedly.
With a rinsed off clean crab you are now ready
for cooking, so grab a pan or pot and add about 5 to 6 quarts of
water. Add 1 cup of sea salt to create a seawater simulation, or add
actual seawater if convenient. Heat the water to around 100 degrees
F which will in turn put the crab to sleep gently. After a few
minutes of this, crank on the heat a lot more until you achieve a
simmer and cook the crab for around 8 minutes for the first 1lb of
weight, then about 6 minutes for the next 1lb and then approximately
5 minutes for every 1lb after that.
Remove the crab, drain off and
ideally plunge into a sink or pan containing some iced water. Let it
chill for a few minutes, drain off and transfer onto a plate into
the refrigerator until you're ready to prepare that crab recipe.
This procedure will provide you with lovely moist crab meat.
