Crabs

Evening all.

I bought a couple of crabs today fresh off one of the boats. I know how you kill them, clean them, and cook them etc.

The trouble is, they've had a fight somewhere between leaving the boat and arriving at my house. One poor fellow has had his arm cut clean off.

So now, as they sit slowly dying in fresh water ready to be cooked up, I wonder if the major injury affects any of the preparation. I know they usually get boiled whole because if boiling water gets onto the flesh directly, it bubbles up and goes all scummy.

 

You've got me there Dave

 

Bought two live crabs off the boats. They were whole. They had a fight. Now one has a great whole in his shell.

I was just wondering if that affects how I should cook it

 

Oh, I understood the question my friend, I just didn't know the answer

Maybe the injured one should be killed and microwaved rather than boiled, no water to mess the flesh up then.

 

I didn't know you could micro them. Mind its been a long time since I prepared a crab. I used to do them regularly as a kid under my dad's guidance. They didn't have microwaves back then.

Anyway, the injured one is in the pan now.

 

Neither did I, but I thought if I let you try first, we'd know for next time:WINK1:

 

That made me laff!

 

Turns out they both ended up getting cooked with some limbs detached.

Got first one out the pan. Went to get second one out of the bucket to go in the pan, and accidentally dropped him. Two of his legs broke off.

 

Blimey, if he wern't dead, he is now then:OUCH:

Funny you came up with this when you did, I was just talking to my mate about cooking Velvet Underground Crabs, folk are saying they taste as good as, if not better than, Lobster.

 

They may have kept on scrapping.........

 

I don't think I'll be buying any more. Too much hassle. Apart from drowning them, and cooking them, its just taken me 45 minutes to extract the meat out of just one of them.

I remembered the technique from when I was a kid and used to do it regularly, but I just couldn't get it right. Having done the legs and claws, I managed to break the whole lid in half the wrong way, resulting in all the slime that you normally throw away dribbling all over my hands. And there was no meat in the top. I'm sure there's supposed to be.

 

I had the same hassle with a Spider Crab.

Huge Furry Whittingstall cooked a few of them on my pier & fed about 10 people with them, I cooked a huge one (crab, not HFW) & barely had enough meat to fill a sandwich, felt very guilty.

Must be someting to do with the time of year I guess.

 

Possible, the ones I got today are the first ones I've ever bought. When I was a kid, my dad and I used to just go onto the rocks at low tide with our hooks, and just liberate them from the nooks and crannies that they hide in.

We could only collect them at certain times of year. July and August was a no go because of blue green algae. No good in the winter because, so my dad reckons, they all migrate to deeper water for winter to keep warm (I'm sure you know, the sea temperature changes much less throughout the year ones you get beyond the shallow coastal bit).

 

It does, most things drop off around here in the winter, prawns, crabs etc.

We get Whiting & the occasional Cod.

Must have told you about the Crab that killed down at Portland.

 

What/who did it kill?