Box Crabs - The First Taste

Brown Box Crab - Caught near the Channel Islands

This past weekend at the Tuna Harbor Dockside Market we picked up some box crabs (our second box crab experience.  Box crabs are relatively pricey for crabs at the market, hitting $8.00 per pound.  However I will note that this price still seems good for crab.

Box crabs are a species of king crab and have sizable legs with large chunks of meat.  Brown box crabs are able to fold their legs in close to their body, in an almost perfect fit, leading to their common name.  They also have a unique circular opening in their claws that may help them feed.  The Box Crab is found from the coast of Alaska down to San Diego but is not widely marketed in southern California.

Since we have been visiting the fish market, Box Crabs have been a staple and should be available year round in San Diego.  The crabs available at the market were caught by trap off of the channel islands.  We ended up buying two spider crabs for dinner.  As soon as we got home from the market, we threw the crabs in the freezer for a humane numbing before their steam bath.  Our crabs averaged just under three pounds each, so after a twenty-two minute steam - eight minutes per pound (average weight of each crab) - and a quick cool down, Ingrid got down to picking the meat. 

It took about a half hour for Ingrid to pick the two crabs - again, Ingrid is an expert crab picker - and we came away with a pound and a half of meat, which put us at just under $30 per pound for actual meat.  The cooked meat, without accoutrement, is sweet and satisfying - on par with Alaskan King Crab.  Adding Old Bay seasoning (a Maryland Blue Crab Tradition), butter, and/or lemon, provided a little variety to the tasting.  Old Bay and butter was my preferred preparation.  Picking the meat was fairly comparable to picking Alaskan King Crab Legs, though with a few more sharp spines to watch out for.  All in all, our first few experiences with box crabs have been amazing.  I am at a loss as to why these crabs are not more widely available in grocery stores, which seem to only have king crab legs and snow crab legs shipped in from afar.  Abundant, relatively easy to catch (so we are told), tasty, and easy to pick. 

To read a 1992 report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on Box Crab, click here.