The process for both male and female hard crabs is the same. Is there a right way and a wrong way to clean hard crabs? It depends who you ask. One thing is for certain, it takes time. The object is to get to the meat and how you get there will take a little practice.
First some basics. Each blue crab yields an average serving of 3 ounces of meat and contains the following: 89 calories; calories from fat 22; total fat 3g; saturated fat 1g; cholesterol 95mg; sodium 274 mg; protein 16g; vitamin A 2%; calcium 10%; Vitamin C 0%, Iodine (low percentage) and Iron 11%. A lot depends on its size.
As you will soon learn, crab shells are covered with pointed spines which can cut your hands while eating crabs if you are not careful. You will need a mallet; nutcracker; hammer or some object to break the hard outside shell. Once broken you can pull the pieces off and get to the crab meat. You can use a small knife to remove the meat or your hands.
Some like to clean the crabs before they are cooked. To do this you place the crabs on ice for few minutes until they stop all movement. You then pick them up, remove the top shell and wash out the internal organs and remove the gills. Then flip them over and remove the apron. You can also put the crabs in soda water which effectively anesthetizes them in about 20 minutes.
BEGINNING: Two essential things you need are a mallet, and a crab. How do you use a crab mallet? Like a hammer but, in most cases, you do not hit as hard. Cover a table with paper. If you use a good table, take a plastic trash bag;
cut it open and cover the table with that first. Then place paper, newspaper
works well, on top of the plastic. This will prevent liquid from staining the
table top.
Start by pulling off the side legs and claws. There may be some good white meat on the ends of the legs you remove.
Hold a claw and strike it with the mallet. Do not smash it! Just hit it hard enough to break it. You can then pull the meat out of the
shell and enjoy it.
Turn the body over and lift up the apron, bend it back and remove it like the tab on a soda can. The male and female aprons look different but the procedure is the same.
CLEANING: Once done, pry the top and bottom halves of the shell apart. You will see a fairly disgusting mess in the center of the shell. These are the internal organs. You can eat this stuff but it does not taste very good.
MORE CLEANING:
Scrape out the internal organs and remove the gills which are the fan shaped
organs on either side of the cavity where the organs are located.You will see
yellow matter inside. This is the Hepatopancreas (mustard), an internal organ which filters impurities from the blood. Many people eat the mustard with no concern for what sort of impurities it holds.
EATING: Once you have done all this, grasp the shell with
both hands and break it in half. Turn it over to the side where the
apron was and remove the outer shell. Right under this shell is where the
real meat is.
Dig out as much meat as you can find. Once you are done, role the empty shells up in the paper and toss them out or gather the shells, break them up, and bury them in your garden. Crab shells are bagged and sold for garden use so you already have a good fresh supply.
A final note. You may find that the crab is almost hollow when you take off the top shell. This is a ‘watergall’ or ‘whitey’ and is simply a characteristic of the crab. What meat there is will be fine to eat.
You may see black spots on some of the meat. This is common and is pepper spot disease. It looks unattractive but is not harmful to eat. In female crabs you may see yellow matter on the meat. These are eggs and are safe to consume.
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