Things You Need to Know About Blue Crabs and Rock Crabs Before Cooking

Crabs come in a wide variety. Each type surely gives you a genuine seafood flavour, though. There are various ways available of preparing them, which you can also try at home. Speaking of juicy crabs, the succeeding paragraphs lead you to instructions on how to cook rock crab and live blue crabs. But before going to the instructions, let us first know some important facts about these types of crabs.

Because you need to know these facts

The name rock crab practically came from the rocky shores, a kind of environment this crab is lives in. Most often than not, rock crab’s popularity can be levelled with other crabs that can be found in the coastal area of West America. These crabs being referred to are the Dungeness crab and the Pacific red crab. To distinguish whether a rock crab is a male or female, all you have to do is to examine their plates found on their bodies. A smaller plate means the crab is a male while a larger identifies the crab as a female. The average size of a rock crab ranges from 4 to 6 inches. On rare times, however, some fishermen catch on board rock crabs as large as 10 inches.

Meanwhile, blue crabs are originally from the Atlantic Ocean. They are often referred to as Callinectes sapidus meaning “a savoury beautiful swimmer.” It can grow as long as 9 inches and can live a life of 1 to 1 ½ years while some can live for as long as 3 years. If you are curious about the sex of the blue crabs, you can just take a look at their abdomens. Female blue crabs possess larger abdomens than the male ones.

May this information help you understand better the crabs that you will be cooking.

 

Preparing Rock Crab

After you have done the initial cleanings with the rock crab, the next thing you need to do is to prepare two large pots. On one pot, put water together with salt and wait for it to boil. Meanwhile, you also need to fill water in the other pot but this time, put cold water with ice instead. When the water on the first pot already boils, throw in the crabs making sure that each has enough space in the pot. You can always cook the remaining other on the next batch. Wait for it to boil with the crabs. When it is already boiling, slow the fire and cover the pot. Check your crabs after 15 minutes. The best indicator if the crabs are ready to be served if you see them float on the pot.

Cleaning and Cooking Live Blue Crabs

Upon catching the live crabs, there are two ways to tame them. One is to throw them in basin of hot water and the other is to place them in a container full of ice. When they are already tamed, you can start the cleaning. You have to start with the abdomen. Use a knife to slice the body and the abdomen as you have to remove the intestines and the shells. To make sure that no unnecessary dirt is left, wash them with tap water. Do it until the crab is fully clean.

It is best to cook the live blue crabs after cleaning them to ensure the freshness. You can cook blue crabs the way you cook rock crabs. Most of the times, boiled crabs are preferred to be served with a melted butter as a dip.

Have A Taste of A Cold Sea With Alaskan Crab

Learning how to prepare Alaskan Crab meat in different ways is one thing we look forward to during special occasions. But before we start with our preparation, did we even bother our self with knowing facts about them? For a start, when we say Alaska crab, this includes the big delicious Alaskan snow crab, Dungeness crab meat, and tanner crab meat.

Generally, Alaska crabs bring many health benefits to our body that is why many people have become Alaska crab lovers.

Having 5 short and small legs, dungeness crabs have are said to be the size of the tanners. Their shells are semi-transparent and have oval bodies. They can only weigh as heavy as 3 pounds and grow as long as 6 inches. This 5-legged crab specie serves as food to the other crabs as well as other seafood specie including the dogfish and the octopus.

Originally, king crabs or stone crabs are found in cold seas such as the Alaska coast, thus the name Alaskan king crab. There are three kinds of king crabs namely the red, blue, and golden king crabs. The blue ones are considered to be larger species while the golden ones are the smallest. While king crabs in general have the delicious meat, the red king crab is considered to be the most famous in the markets as it is the kind commonly caught. Unlike any other crabs, the king crab has 6 legs, an average number of legs a person can finish in an eating.

Meanwhile, snow crabs or tanner crabs are famous because of their delectable red-colored legs. Like the dungeness, they also wear semi-transparent shells and bear 5 legs.

Their presence in the coast of Alaska has become beneficial not only because they provide food but also because of the health benefits they bring. Some drastic changes in environmental conditions have caused the some of the Alaskan crabs to become less existent in many coats. This also explains why crab meat is quite expensive. Despite its being expensive, crab legs lover continue to patronize them because of the nutrients and vitamins they provide.

For those who want a low calorie eating, they prefer to cook their crab legs by boiling or steaming them, and avoid dipping them to butter. The only seasoning they put on their crab legs is lemon. Still, they enjoy eating crab legs since they have with them the natural aroma and full taste of sweetness.

More than their natural lusciousness, crab legs also have nutrients such as omega-3 fatty acids, copper, zinc, and magnesium. People who do not eat fatty food might be surprised that king crab leg contains more protein and is very low in fat. Eating a leg means you just added in your body 2 grams of fat and 132 calories, which allows you to eat more than one leg. In fact, studies show that it is healthy for one person to eat as much as six legs.

Being seafood, Alaskan crabs also rich in omega-3 fatty acid that is very good for the heart. Also, crab leg is a very good aid in lowering blood pressure and in creating a good blood circulation.

Discovering these health benefits found in King crab legs, Alaskan snow crab, and Dungeness crab meat guarantee that continuous eating of seafood can better our health condition. The healthy eating habit can do us away from fatal diseases such as cancer, high blood pressure, and heart attack. One way to maintain a healthy eating habit of seafood is by learning and start practicing how to cook Alaskan crabs in the healthiest ways.

Enhance Taste and Texture: Appropriate King Crab Cleaning

Learning how to cook crab legs is never a difficult task although it has been a common misconception that it is. Crab meat in general is salacious; however, many crab meat eaters consider the leg part over the body part to be juicier. Another trivia about crab legs is that the king crab legs offer the tastiest meat.

Once you have bought the meat, the very first thing you do when you arrive home is to thaw them. By thawing, it means that you need to place them in your refrigerator for the rest of the night. People often understand thawing as putting them in the microwave or leaving in a room temperature. This is a common mistake. One important thing you must keep in mind is that crab legs are already pre-cooked upon buying them in the market. This explains why cooking them over again destroys the texture and taste. The only thing you need to do with them is to preheat them, which you can only do once.

The first step in actual cooking is by choosing the best part of the meat for your dish. Since there are three sections of the crab leg, you have to separate each by the joint. Some prefer not to take off the claws but should you do, use a strong tool to help you with it. You cannot do it with your bare hands as you might get wounded. As you notice, the meat is still covered up by its shell and to uncover it, you have to crack it using your thumb this time. Be extra careful in doing this since the meat is already pre-cooked, thus, soft.

After you are done with cleaning up the crab legs, the next thing is to prepare all the things you need in cooking them. There are four popular ways to prepare them: baked, microwaved, boiled and steamed. Each procedure has corresponding equipment and ingredients needed.

Baking crab legs can be finished in as fast as 5 minutes. Be sure that your microwave oven is free from any dirt from your previous heating before you start the cooking. Place the crab legs in a baking tray in a 420 degrees F preheat oven. After 5 minutes of waiting, you are ready to serve your baked crab legs.
To complete your microwaved crab legs, wrap them in a towel paper then placed them on a pan. In as fast as 3 minutes, you can finally find yourself doing the final plating on your crab legs.

Boiling is yet another easy way to come up with an especially cooked king crab legs. Just boil on a cooking a pot 3 cups of water with your desired seasonings on it. When it is already boiling, throw in your crab legs and let it simmer for 10 minutes with slow fire. Another great thing about crab legs is that they are tasty enough without putting much seasoning on them.

To cook through steaming means waiting for the water vaporize and the heat of the vaporized water will cook the crab meat. To do this, put water on a steamer and wait until it boils. When it does, put your crab legs on the steaming tray for 5 minutes. Place your king crab legs on a tray and put butter for a sweeter taste.

When you finally learned these basic ways of cooking crab legs, you may discover other delicious ways on how to cook king crab legs.

Complete your Special Day; Serve the Best Crab Legs Dish

To attain the perfect cook for any crab legs dish, you must take into consideration the guidelines on how to cook them properly. You may have all the ingredients to help you make your dish perfect, however, without building discipline in following instructions, the supposed to be special crab legs dish might end up to be no different from the ordinary dishes you have served in the past.

The very first step in cooking starts with buying the main ingredient. Since crabs are taken from the sea, hence, the main issue here is freshness. What makes any seafood enjoyable to it is the idea that they are in their most fresh condition upon cooking. Taking this as noteworthy, sellers find different ways to preserve crab legs. Most of the times, sellers come up with two preservation options – the pre-cooked one and the frozen one. You can prefer any of these manners of preservation; the final taste output comes with the way you prepare them anyway.

Now, the next question that might occur to you is how to cook crab legs the easiest way. Unlike any other dishes, your favourite crab leg dish can be served in as fast as 15 minutes or less through steaming. The pre-cooking process the crab meat has undergone explains this. The process of steaming your crab is not only quick, but it is also a kind of preparation that is effortless and healthy at the same time. To do it, the only equipment you need is a steamer. As for the ingredients, you only have to prepare salt plus water which is the main source of the whole steaming process. First, wash the crab legs. This is to make sure that any dirt acquired will be removed. The next thing to do is for you to wait for the two cups of water to boil in a steamer and be ready with your salt and crab leg. Once the water has reached its boiling point, you may put on the crab legs. Do not pour too much salt as it can spoil its juiciness.

As said earlier, the steaming process will not take a long wait. Having gone through the pre-cooking process, the crab legs only need a light cooking, thus, this process. The objective here is to bring back the juiciness while maintaining the texture of the crab meat.

When you have finally smelled the delicious aroma, then your dish must be ready to be served. Appropriate time of cooking maintains its appealing texture and perfect tenderness. For more flavoursome eating, you may opt to add butter and lemon. Lemon will balance out the full taste of the crab meat.

Crab meat is considered one of the most expensive meats, which is why we should always be cautious in cooking them. Make every cooking as if you are celebrating one special day in your life. While there are other ways on how to cook crab legs, always remember that delicious taste cannot only be achieved through the techniques you apply but through the cooking discipline you carry through the process.