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How to Clean a Dungeness Crab

Are you tired of finding bits of shell in your crab? Curious how to deconstruct a crab for a dish like Cioppino without destroying the poor little creepy crawler? Interested in the knowledge of how to extract the most meat from your crustacean? This is the recipe and video for you!
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Prep Time 20 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes
Course Appetizer, Dinner, Lunch, Main Course, Side Dish
Cuisine American, Mediterranean
Servings 4 people
Calories 0.2 kcal

Equipment

  • 1 Mallet or Meat Tenderizer use the flat face

Ingredients
  

  • 1 whole Dungeness Crab cooked

Instructions
 

  • Find the crab "apron". This is a little flap on the bottom of the crab near the back end of the shell. Using a finger or flat butter knife, lift the apron and pull it back, exposing the seam where the top shell and body meet.
  • Using gentle pressure from the apron hinge, push the top shell up off of the body and pop it off. This part can be a bit messy so it is good to have wax paper or even the butcher paper that the crab was packed in to cover your work surface.
  • Set the top crab shell on the board with the cavity oriented up and scoop all of the unwanted bits (gills, mandibles, other unwanted crab internals) into the top shell for easy containment.
  • Rinse the crab body, legs, and claws under a cool tap to clean off any residue.
  • Using pressure along the seam that runs along the center of the crab body, crack the body in half then one at a time remove the legs from the body by slowly rotating the joint until they pop out of their sockets. Once the legs are removed, remove the claws in the same fashion.
  • Working with each claw and leg individually, cover the crab with a paper towel and lightly crack each segment with your mallet or meat tenderizer. You will feel the shell split open. Do not over crack the crab. Optionally, split the crab segments open to remove the meat from the inside.
  • Working with each half of the body, gently break apart each segment and optionally remove the meat, discarding the empty sections of shell as you go.
  • Enjoy some delicious crab, with whole cracked legs and claws in a cioppino, meat in a crab cocktail, or as part of a delicious salad.

Video

Nutrition

Calories: 0.2kcalCarbohydrates: 0.003gProtein: 0.04gFat: 0.003gCholesterol: 0.1mgSodium: 1mgPotassium: 1mgVitamin A: 0.2IUVitamin C: 0.01mgCalcium: 0.1mg
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