How To Clean Crabs Before Cooking Them

how to clean crab in less than 60 seconds? (easy method)

How to clean crab?

All seafood lovers will know that crab is an amazing seafood. Crab meat has a soft, delicate, out-of-the world sweetness making it the king of seafood.

They are cooked and enjoyed in several ways – crab cakes, bisque, soups, or Asian favourites like Indian crab masala, crab curry, Singapore chilli crab, options are endless.

For many seafood lovers, crab is a delicacy that they get to enjoy only in a restaurant. Why? The answer is simple. "How does one clean crab? They look so difficult to cut and clean that most crab lovers are petrified at the thought!"

Not anymore! This article will show the easiest way to clean a crab in under a minute.

how to clean crab in less than 60 seconds? (easy method) — The easiest way to clean crabs

If you are lucky to have access to fresh seafood, always buy live crabs. When working with live crabs, cook them immediately after you get them. Keep them in the freezer for a couple of hours before you start working on them. Or blanch them in boiling water for a minute and immediately plunge in cold water so that they don't get cooked. I was able to get hold of some great blue crabs. I kept them in the freezer for an hour, and the let it thaw for a while before I started working on it.

When you have a batch of cleaned crab, check out these amazing crab recipes.

Onion and Pepper Crab – This dish marries delicate flavours of crab meat with the sweetness of caramelized onions and punctuated fieriness of black pepper.

Crab Curry – With just two ingredients to bring out the best in the crab meat, this is a winning recipe!

How to clean a crab in less than a minute?

"How do one clean a crab? They look so difficult to cut and clean that most crab lovers are petrified at the thought!" Not anymore! This article will show the easiest way to clean a crab in under a minute.

Wash the crabs clean.
It'll be easy to clean crabs when you have access to running water. So position yourself near a sink while cleaning the crab.
Let's start by turning the crab over.
Now lift it's apron. You can use a knife to pry it off.
You can either break it off, or lift it up fully and move to the next step.
Turn over, hold firm, and pull off the carapace (top shell) along with the apron. If you had broken off the apron in the previous step, just lift the carapace. Hold firm, and slowly pull it off.
If you want to use the top shell or carapace for serving, wash and keep it aside. Rinse well to remove any particles in the shell. Otherwise, just bin them.
After the carapace is removed, the crab will be left with gills and guts exposed.
Rinse well to remove the guts. Pull out all the gills.
Rinse again to remove any remaining inedible bits.
The crab is all cleaned up and ready to cut now.
Place the crab on a flat surface (or a chopping board), and cut along the middle using a heavy knife (like a cleaver). Alternatively you can cut through the middle using a heavy duty scissors.
Now break off the claws (the two big claws). Cut off the ends from the swimming legs. And for a final touch, crack the claws with the non-sharp side of the knife or a heavy spoon so that it'll be easy to reach the meat once it's cooked.
It didn't even take a minute to clean one crab. Now keep calm, and repeat the same steps for the remaining crabs.