Port Germein - South Australia

Just like cooking, there would also be many ways of cleaning. Here's how I do it....

So this is what your crab should look like.

First take revenge.... Pull off the bitey bit :-)

Break off the forearm and press the knuckle down till it comes off.

There's a lovely piece of meat in here I call the lollipop.

With a sharp knife or chopper cut partway into the shell
and snap it where you made the cut.

Now there's a fine piece of one of the tastiest seafoods around.

Yum... That's has to be better than crayfish.

Chop the forearm partway as previously described.

and use the digger you made in the previous step to make sure you get all the meat.
The knuckle you broke off earlier also has a nice firm piece in it too.

Pull the small legs out directly from the body with out twisting them.
Don't worry if the meat doesn't come out like this... we will still get at it in a moment.

Snap off the joint closest to the body on the upper arm, then start
with your thumb down near the elbow joint and run it along....

More meat.....

The swimming leg has the largest piece of meat in the body.

So.. pull and eat the legs...

Turn the body over and put your fingernail under the
convenient pull tab (pointy end of the flap).

Stick your thumb in between the flap and the carapace

and just pull them apart....

Now here's the gooey bit... remove the flakey bits across the top
by scraping with your thumb... these are the gills.

You would have noticed that there are two distinct halves.
The goo in between is the various organs and some say fat. It depends
on your ethnic background, but I've seen people put their tongue in
this and gulp it down. There are also jars in asian food shops called
Crab Fat... but I digress........

Give it a wash to make it clean.....

and break it in half....

Proceed to break into smaller bits while removing the tasty
white meat. Some tease it out with their fingers, but if you pop
a bit in your mouth shell and all, your tongue is very adept at
finding the bits it needs.

Every morsel is worth it!

The series of web pages, All about Crabs, is copyright to Elec-Tech and used on this web site with permission.