Steaming is better than boiling because more crab flavor is retained in the meat during the cooking process and crabs cook perfectly in 12 minutes.
Enjoy your crab with friends by cracking it freshly cooked over a newspaper covered table and serving it with bread, butter, and Thai Seafood Dipping Sauce. Or use it in another Dungeness crab recipe such as Cioppino, étouffée, or gumbo. I love using the body meat to make a West Coast Dungeness Crab Roll.
EQUIPMENT: a large pot, such as a water bath canner, stock pot, or turkey fryer. Optional: sharp knife, kitchen shears, crab or nut crackers, and picks.
Steamed Dungeness Crabs
Cuisine: AmericanDifficulty: EasyPrep time
10
minutesCooking time
12
minutesCooling time
10
minutesIngredients
freshly caught live Dungeness crabs
filtered water
spices (optional)
Directions
- Put rack or other steamer insert in the pot.
- Add water until the level is at the same height as the rack so water doesn’t reach the crabs. Bring to a rolling boil over very high heat.
- Optionally sprinkle the crabs with spices, such as Old Bay.
- Place crabs in pot and cover tightly with lid.
- Steam for 12 minutes, remove lid, and let stand until crabs are cool enough to handle.
- To clean the crab
- Optionally, remove claws and legs and cut each segment in half with a sharp knife or kitchen shears. You may want to leave the legs on depending on how you plan to serve it.
- Turn the crab upside down, lift the ‘apron’ and use your thumb to break it off at the back of the shell. The apron is the triangle piece of shell.
- Stick your thumb into the hole left from removing the apron, and gently lift up. The top shell will detach from the body, set aside if you’re planning on using it for crab stock. The yellow, liquid stuff is the ‘butter’ and is fat. Scoop out and reserve if using for another dish such as Cioppino, étouffée, or gumbo.
- Remove and discard the spongy, grayish, inedible gills from either side of the body.
- Remove the and discard mandibles. They are the mouthparts.
- Crack in half, you’ll have two individual pieces of body meat. Rinse those.
- Pick the meat out of all the parts with a tool, the last leg segment of a leg, or suck it out directly.
I only have two clusters weighing approx one pound. How long should I cook this small amount of crab?
What do you mean by clusters? No shell?
Are the crabs still alive when you put them in the steamer? If so, does that kill them quick enough so they don’t suffer? I liken that to putting them in room temperature water and bringing it to a boil.
Yes, they are alive. Never cook a dead shellfish that you haven’t killed yourself because the meat spoils rapidly.
They seem to die relatively quickly.
It was thought that they have about the same intelligence as a bug, however, it’s possible they feel pain.
I have a very large pot and plan to steam while Dungeness crab soon. Can I steam several at one time or should I do just a couple at a time?
You may put in as many crabs as will fit while still allowing for the lid to fully close.
Great advice. Thanks,
Richard
Thank you so much!