How to Eat Crab
Now, you may think how to eat a crab is a no-brainer or you may think it’s a time-consuming, tedious task that deters you away from eating crab all together. Whatever the case may be, assuming you are going to devour a whole crab (not crab cakes, crab salad, etc.), there is definitely an efficient way to ingest them. Mainly, this technique works for blue crab and Dungeness crabs. What you don’t need is a hammer or even a fork. What you would need is a cracker
1. Starting with a whole crab, you want to remove all of its legs and claws. This can be done by just ripping them off with your hands. You want to remove them right where the joints meets the body. Don’t twist but bend the limb downwards or upwards and they should come right off.
2. Once you’ve removed them, utilize the cracker to crack open the shell on the limbs. Crack them a few times at different angles and then just remove the shell off with your fingers. The sweet, juicy crab meat should then be revealed.
3. A dipping sauce like melted, creamy butter or tangy cocktail sauce can be used to eat the meat.
4. Phew! That was the easy and intuitive part. Now comes the main body of the crab that many people eat with inefficient methods. Don’t pound the shell into a crabby pulp with a mallet. Instead, remove the tab or the flap under the crabs belly either with your knife or your fingers.
5. Once this is done, you can easily pry the top part of the shell off with your hands by wedging one of your fingers in the removed-flap area. Use the technique like you are shuffling cards.
6. Now the top and bottom parts are separated. Don’t eat the gills of the crab as they can be toxic. Those are the grayish parts that look like gills, and you want to remove them. The orangey mass or goo is the crab butter. This is totally edible and actually tastes delicious. Do eat that.
7. Find a slot that is located between the bottom of the crab and the mass of meat above it where the limbs were connected to. Use your knife to shear off the meaty parts by slicing at the slot. Now, the meatiest parts are exposed and you can easily get to them. You no longer need your knife. Just use your fingers. Enjoy!
Check out the education crab eating technique videos below! Want to cook you own crabs? Find all the ingredients, utensils, toppings and and more at the CrabbingHq store.