How To Pick Hard Crabs

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Food and Drink: HOW TO EAT HARD CRABS
Maryland is famous for it's crabs. So you haven't tried crabs because you aren't sure how to pick them? Well, below are the steps you will need to learn as well as some ideas about eating crabs if you are heading to a crab feast, picking up a dozen or planing a trip to a Maryland crab house.

Getting Started:

If you are picking up crabs and plan on eating them at home be sure to have newspaper or a table cloth to make your clean up easier. Also make sure to have enough crabs for your friends and family. A good estimate of how many crabs to get for each person is about 6-8. More or less depending on appetites. Also be sure to have some other goodies to eat and drink as well. Corn on the cob, hush puppies, coleslaw, beer, iced tea are just a few good ideas. Besides that you will need some wooden mallets and paring, butter or even plastic knifes. These are pretty much standard crab eating utensils and small appetizer forks are nice to have but not necessary. Some condiments for the picked crab meat are melted butter, vinegar and Old Bay seasoning. Try dipping in all of these or just one or two at a time and see which combination you like best.

Buying Crabs:

If you are buying crabs it's a good idea to call around to a few different vendors and see what the going prices are, the price will vary depending on season, availability and whether you are buying them at a restaurant or from a road side dealer. Also ask about the size differences when you are buying crabs. The price goes up as the size of the crabs get bigger. Sometimes its better to buy mediums instead of large crabs because the large are not that much larger. However, the larger the crabs the better chance to get large pieces of meat.

Picking Crabs:

Break off the claws and legs
Step 1: Hold the crab by the body and break off his claws and legs. Crack the claws with a small wooden mallet. It's also possible to place your knife near the center of the claw and tap on top of it with your mallet, some Marylanders just use their hands to hit the knife but be careful if you are trying this with a paring knife. Then break open the claw with your hands after getting a good crack on the claw. You should be able to pull the claw meat out easily at this point. If not, work on where you are cracking the claws. Move your knife closer to the edges or joints and once you start getting the meat out in large pieces, remember that spot. You can dig the meat from the claws if some gets stuck, just use your knife or small fork. Then try your condiments, remember to have some drinks at hand. Old Bay seasoning is known to make people very thirsty.

Step 2: When you start working with the body, flip it upside down and pry off the apron by starting with the pointed end. Be careful that you don't prick your fingers, crab shells are very pointy and sharp and can cut or prick your hands.

Pry him apart!
Step 3: Now use both hands and stick your thumbs between the top and bottom shells of the crab where the apron was previously covering. Separate the top part from the bottom part. Remember that you are working with the whole crab and that you will need to get around some of the stuff you wouldn't if you just bought a can of crab meat.

Step 4: You will want to scrape out the stuff that looks yellow and off-white. Scrape down to the white or clear colored shell is exposed, this is where the majority of crab's meat is located. This means the yellow gunk (mustard), spongy lungs, deadman's fingers, etc. Some tidy pickers use the top part of the shell to hold all of the unwanted insides. This is a hard step if you are not use to picking crabs but the rewards afterwards are delicious.

Break him in half with your hands, not kitchen shears like the rookie shown here!
Step 5: Next, to expose the meat inside the now cleaned crab, break it in half or use a knife to get a clean cut down the middle. You should be cutting from the front to back or at least in that direction. You do not want to cut the crab from left to right at this point. From here you can either pick out the meat with a fork or knife or you can quarter your pieces again with your knife. To quarter your halves, hold the half on end or on its left or right side of the crab. Then use your knife and cut the piece into two more pieces. This cut would be in the left to right direction if the crab was flat on the table with the knife in a horizontal position.
Here's the good part - the EATING!
Step 6: "Pick" the crab. Dig the meat out of the little membrane tubes with a little fork or your fingers. Make sure you get it all because you've worked hard to get this far and you should get some meat out of the deal! If it looks like nothing's there, look again - this is the sweetest part of the crab and if you were to buy it in a store it would cost you a fortune.