How to Crack a Cooked Crab

Our fishmongers make this look easy (and they’re always happy to help out if you don’t fancy doing it yourself). That said, cracking and dressing a cooked crab is a lot less tricky than you might think – and when you’ve done it once, it only gets easier. A crab-pick will come in handy, but there’s no need for specialist equipment (standard kitchen knives, a skewer and the end of a teaspoon should do the job); just follow our handy guide and you’ll have a tasty crab meal on the table in no time!

STEP 1

Start with a freshly cooked crab; give it a quick rinse under cold running water, then pat dry and place on a chopping board. Lie the crab on its back, eyes away from you, then remove the two large front claws by squeezing them where they join the body, pulling and twisting them away from the crab until they come off. Repeat for the crab’s legs.

STEP 2

Next, separate the shell from the body. Keeping the crab on its back, find the abdomen (it looks like a flap on the underneath of the body). Put your fingers under the edges of the crab shell and use your thumbs to push the flap firmly up and lift the animal’s internal body away from the shell – it will usually break open fairly easily, and you will hear it crack – but if not, use a knife to carefully prise the crab apart.

STEP 3

Next, remove any inedible parts. Somewhat grimly called ‘deadmen’s fingers’ (there are ten of them), the crab’s gills are in the main body you’ve just prised away from the shell. They look grey and feathery; pull them all out and discard. Then, with the shell still facing down, turn it so the eyes face towards you. There is a small piece of shell immediately behind the eyes - push down on it firmly so that it snaps off from the main shell, then lift it up and out (it will bring the animal’s mouth and stomach with it) and discard.

STEP 4

Use a spoon to scrape any brown meat inside the shell into a bowl. Hold the internal body with the ‘flap’ side down, and scrape any exposed brown meat into the bowl, too.

STEP 5

The internal body is made up of lots of little bits of meat, divided by shell. To avoid getting any pieces of shell in the meat, it’s best to cut the body in half (or quarters, for a large crab). Pick out the white meat from the body with your fingers, or a teaspoon handle or skewer, and put it into a separate bowl from the brown meat. There should be quite a bit of white meat, so persevere until you get it all, then discard the empty body.

STEP 6

Next, break the legs at the joints and use a skewer to pick out any meat. With the back of a heavy knife or even a small hammer (but go gently!), crack the main claw shells. You may need to do this on both sides. Pull the white meat away from the cracked claws and add it to the bowl of white meat, then remove the feather-like piece of cartilage inside each of the claws, picking off any meat and discarding the cartilage. For the claw joints, break them open as you did the leg joints, using a skewer to pick out the white meat. 

STEP 7

Stir slowly through the bowl of brown meat, looking carefully for any pieces of shell (pick out and discard any you find), then spread the white meat on a baking tray or dish and inspect it closely for more pieces of shell, checking it through with clean hands as you go, to check that absolutely no shell has been left in. Return the white meat to its bowl.

STEP 8

If you’d like to serve the crab meat on the shell, remove the inner shell by pressing down firmly along the natural line inside the main shell until the inner part breaks off, forming a natural ‘dish’. Scrub and rinse the main shell under cold water until clean, then pat dry. Fill with the prepared crab meat (white meat on one side and brown on the other looks great). Serve straight away, or refrigerate and eat within 24 hours.

To avoid waste, why not use the shell (if not serving with it), claw and leg pieces to make a shellfish stock? It can be frozen until ready to use.