How to prepare a crab
A few rules for crab meat. Never buy pasteurised, it tastes of virtually nothing. Never buy frozen, or indeed freeze it, the delicacy of this amazing beast is wiped clean by the process. Hand picked is best. Is there any other way? Yes on a bigger scale the meat is stripped under water pressure, the water drained and the meat packed. Except a lot of the flavour disappears with the water.
A dressed crab is undoubtedly the easy route. A whole crab will be considerably cheaper but it can be a little intimidating if you’ve not picked one before. It is not just about the money, there is joy to be had in the whole glorious, messy exercise.
To cook a crab, drop into plenty of hot, boiling well-salted water (15g of salt for one litre of water). Bring back to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes for a 1kg crab. You’ll need to adjust up or down depending on your size of crab. Overcook and the meat becomes very dull, undercook and will obviously be raw. Bear in mind you will leave it to rest so it will go on ‘cooking’ for a bit. Err on side of caution the first time and give it a good blast.
When cool, slam the whole beast down on the back edge, the body will separate from the shell and you should be able to lift it out of the shell. At the front of the body there is what my crab man Paul calls the face, press down into the shell and it will crack off.
2. The dark meat - more flavour - will be stuck inside the shell. Scoop out with your finger and set aside to use in the dressing. Discard the shell unless you plan to pack with the crab meat and use to serve.
3. The body has a number of finger-like green tenticles. Remove these and discard.
5. Break off the claws and remove legs.
6. Lift the flap covering the centre of the body and remove.
7. Using a sharp knife slice through the centre of the body. This will reveal lots of crevices and with a pick remove the white meat. There is a lot more in here than you might think but it needs a bit of wriggling to get it all out.
8. The claws need a good whack with a hammer or similar. The trick is to break the shell but leave it in biggish pieces so you don’t end up with shell in your picked meat. The legs generally yield to a whack with a knife or rolling pin.
9. The crab is ready for you to pick out all the white meat.
Crab meat can be used in a pasta sauce, crab on toast, a crab roll, crab salad… The dark meat has more flavour but people tend to prefer the white meat. So make your salad dressing with the brown, or indeed your pasta sauce. Sprinkle the white meat over at the end. It has a delicacy to be preserved by last minute attention.
Herbs that work well with crab: Fennel, tarragon, chives, chevil.
Wines to go with. Something crisp but also with some richness and body and a bit of minerality. Whites from the Loire, Jura, northern Italy and north western Spain.