Cleaning Blue Crab

While it is not required to dive for crab, and it might actually be tougher to succeed while diving, this article exists to educate fishermen and trappers on how to clean and cook crab. For the beginner it can be intimidating to handle an armored sea creature capable of breaking your fingers with its claws. But, if you do it correctly it is safe, and provides a tasty meal. 

Once you have the crab trapped (which is a whole different discipline) and on your counter top the first order of business is to dispatch it. You need to make a cut from the top of the genitals through the mandible to sever the brain stem of the crab

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Once that is done flip the crab onto its stomach and pop off the top shell. You're going to see its lungs first. These are poisonous so pick them out and throw them away. Your end goal is to remove everything that is not edible.

The next step is to pop off the mandible of the crab. This removes any remaining particles of their last meal which you probably won’t want to consume. Crabs are bottom feeders– so while the end product may be tasty what the crab itself eats usually does not interest humans.

Now that the mandible is removed, flip the crab back over and remove its genitals. This is the flap on the belly of the crab- just pop it up and rotate it back until it comes off. With the genitals removed the crab should neatly break into halves. All that’s left is to remove the rest of the nerves.

All of the yellow things remaining on the crab are the nerve endings. Run each half under water and use your fingers to remove them until all that’s left is white meat and your crab is ready to cook!

Once the crab is completely cleaned and ready to be cooked it is shooter’s choice on the method of cooking. Steaming is the most popular, but boiling is also viable, and in a pinch grilling may even work though it is not recommended. Cook the crab until the shell turns from vibrant blue to a bright red, usually about 5-10 minutes as contrasted below. From here the crab is ready to eat! 

If you do not plan to consume immediately, pick the meat from the crab and store it in an air tight container then freeze. It will remain good for about six months. 

Make sure to cook the crab before freezing it. Unlike lobster, if you freeze the crab first it will die and the meat will spoil. The texture becomes mushy and the taste is off. But properly cooked it will keep well. My wife and I store our crabs until we get a good enough crop to make a batch of crab cakes out of and then we make a date out of it.