How to Clean Blue Claw Crabs
Cleaning a blue claw crab after it has been cooked involves opening the shell and removing the internal organs, leaving only the large pincer claws and the part of the crab's body that contains the white meat. Once the crab is cleaned, continue on to pick the meat out or bag the claws and crab bodies to freeze them for future use. Cleaning crabs is a messy task and one that will go faster as you get more practiced at it. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
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1
Spread newspaper across the table on which you'll be working if you're cleaning the crabs inside.
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2
Pour some of the water the crabs were cooked in into the medium bowls and set the bowls on the table. Designate one bowl as the cleaning bowl and one as the rinse bowl.
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3
Pick up a cooked crab and hold it head down. Hook your thumbs between the top and bottom shells on the rear of the crab's body between its rear swimmer legs. Firmly and with great pressure, pull the shells apart. Set the top shell aside for disposal.
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4
Grasp and twist off the large front claws. Set the claws aside for retrieval later.
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5
Cut the legs off of the crab's body with the kitchen shears. Cut through the joint where the legs meet the body. Set the legs aside for disposal.
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6
Grasp the crab's jaw between your thumb and index finger, then bend and pull it off. Set it aside for disposal.
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7
Remove as much of the internal organs as you can by scooping them out with your finger or a small knife. Remove the gills by pulling them off with your fingers. The gills are the white, spongy fingers on each side of the crab's body.
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8
Swish what is left of the crab's body in the cleaning bowl to remove all traces of internal organ material, then swish the crab's body in the rinsing bowl.
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9
Set the crab's body aside with the claws removed in step 4.
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10
Repeat steps 3 through 9 for all your crabs.
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Tips & Warnings
Once the crabs are cleaned in this way, you'll have claws and fist-sized (depending on the size of the crabs) hunks of crab bodies. The white crab meat is inside two compartments in the hunk of shell. Leave the meat inside these shell pods for storage. Crab meat left in the shell will freeze well and keep for about a month. Crab meat is tender and doesn't stand up well to freezing after it has been picked out of the shell.
Blue claw crabs can be cleaned before they are cooked. Turn the live crab over onto its back, then pierce the crab's underside just behind its jaw with an ice pick or pointy knife. Leave the point inserted, then swirl it around inside the crab's head. This euthanizes the crab before you start pulling its body apart.
Do not use fresh tap water to rinse the crab bodies. Fresh tap water will spoil the crab meat. Use the water the crab was boiled in to rinse the crab bodies or boil water for this use if the crabs were cooked another way or if you are cleaning live crabs.
