Box Crabs - Cleaning & Picking 101

So you've bought your first box crab, managed to cook it, and are now staring at a whole but fully cooked crab wondering what to do next.  This post is dedicated to cleaning and picking your crab to get the most out of your money.  Though this post features cleaning and picking a box crab, the general methodologies can be used for any crab.




Cleaning Box Crabs is relatively easy with high reward owing to the relatively thin shell and large chunks of meat.  However, for our picking efforts, we started off with a fork (because all of our knives were dirty), a claw cracker, kitchen shears, and a mallet.  Note that safety glasses are highly recommended while using the mallet.

 

Cleaning 101

Cleaning a Box Crab has five steps, which can really be applied to most crabs, as discussed below.

Step 1: Remove the Apron.  Flip it up with your thumb or knife and break off.

Step 2: Remove the Carapace.  The Carapace is the hard outer shell of the crab.  To remove, simply stick the knife through the opening where the apron was and pry off.











Step 3: Remove the Gills from both sides of the crab.  Gills are how the crab breathes.  They are spongy and inedible.

Step 4: Remove the Mandibles.  The mandibles includes all of the parts of the crab's mouth.  Crack them off and throw them away.

Step 5: Rinse all of the green/brown goop out of the shell, leaving only clean (white) meat and shell.

Picking 101

Picking a Box Crab is comparable with picking Alaskan King Crabs and Snow Crabs. The body contains relatively little meat (compared to the legs) - but this meat can largely be picked using your hands, a knife, or a fork.  The legs take a little more effort.  However, a few basic techniques will make this work go very quickly.

First things first, break the crab in half and remove the legs from the body.

 Next, separate the legs.

PICKING MEAT FROM THE BODY 

As mentioned, the meat in the Box Crab body can likely be picked using your hands, knife, or a fork.  The meat will be separated by thin shells.  If you're having a hard time breaking the shells with your hand, try your kitchen shears.

PICKING MEAT FROM THE LEGS & CLAWS

Whereas the body meat of box crab is sparse, the let meat is plentiful.  Ingrid and I have found a few basic methods suitable for quickly breaking down a box crab, as discussed below.

Technique No. 1 - Kitchen Shears:  A lot of the leg shell is thin enough to be cut through with kitchen shears.  In this case, cut into the leg and use your fingers to pry apart the shell.  Use your fingers, a knife, or a fork to dig out the meat.






















Technique No. 2 - Crab Cracker:  The shells that are too hard to be cut through with kitchen shears easily succumb to crab crackers (any sort of leverage tool, like a nut cracker, will work).  Crack open the shell, and dig out the meat. 

Technique No. 3 - Mallet:  We found this technique worked best for the claws.  Hit the claws with the mallet to crack the shell and extract the meat with fingers, a knife, or a fork.