How to Keep Calm and Enjoy Travel
with Little Ones Sponsored by Best
Western When Dungeness crab season
starts on the West Coast (usually
between November and December,
depending on location), there's a
mad dash to cook and eat as many
fresh live crabs as possible before
it ends. Steaming whole crabs and
cleaning them might sound
intimidating, but the process is
relatively easy: Just boil the
crabs, remove a few select pieces
of the shell, clean out a few
squidgy bits, and rinse. The real
fun is cracking and picking them.
Make sure to have seafood crackers
or small hammers on hand to get at
all of the sweet, flaky meat. If
you find yourself with leftover
crabmeat, use it in our Crab Cakes
or Crab and Fontina Stuffed
Mushrooms. Special equipment: Once
your crab is cooked and cleaned,
extract the meat by cracking the
claws, legs, and body open with
small hammers or seafood crackers.
Game plan: Fresh live crab should
be purchased and cooked the same
day-the crabs can only be stored in
the refrigerator for a few hours
once taken out of their holding
tanks. If your crab is not exactly
2 pounds, calculate about 7 to 8
minutes of steaming time per pound
(after the water returns to a
boil). If you're cooking more than
one crab at a time, calculate the
average weight by taking the total
weight of the crabs and dividing by
the number of crabs you have. Use
this average weight to determine
your total steaming time, about 7
to 8 minutes per pound. And be sure
to use an extra-large pot with a
tight-fitting lid. You'll need to
make a batch of our Aioli and
Cucumber Mignonette before you
begin.
