Spider crab ?

[Slinger]

Hi forum, whats the best way to cook spider crab?
Do I cook them whole, dead or alive, and what size are the best?

I seem to remember reading that you only eat the legs but may be wrong.
Any info please.

Slinger.

[sharpshooter]

Hi forum, whats the best way to cook spider crab?
Do I cook them whole, dead or alive, and what size are the best?

I seem to remember reading that you only eat the legs but may be wrong.
Any info please.

Slinger.

The bigger the better. Best meat is in the claws and legs.
Boil em for 20-25mins
You can eat the brown meat inside the body, but thewhite meat is better. Dont eat the 'lungs' no so good for you.
If you cook whole crab, make sure it is alive, or very freshly dead, easy to get food poisening from shellfish.
I hate the stuff, but they say it is sweeter than brown crab.

[Slinger]

Thanks SS.
Can I just cook the legs or does it have to be the whole crab?

[richierobins]

Boil for 15 minutes. Don't bother with females; their claws are about as big as your little finger. A large male has plenty of meat in legs and claws. There is plenty of white meat in the cavities of the main body once the legs and claws have been removed. Use a chopstick to hook it out. There is slighty less meat in a spider crab than a brown crab, but the taste is far better. Served cold on home-made bread with loads of butter, it is unbeatable, but it also goes really well in a tomato, onion, basil and garlic sauce with pasta.

[Jamie Donnelly]

dont cook it dead!!! it must be alive,

just the alive crab in the freezer for 5 mins. it will make it sleep.

boil water and add some salt. when the water is BOILING place the crab in. you may hear a noise from the crab as its shell cracks but hey...... :D

cook for 20 mins. you can eat all the meat in the legs, claws and body. just dont eat the lungs at the front of the head.

as above make a basil tomato sauce and serve with pasta.

Jamie

[jay666]

you may hear a noise from the crab as its shell cracks but hey...... :D



Sounds nice lol

Is it like a squeel?

[Slinger]

Sounds great Jamie, all I need now is the spiders.

Thanks

Slinger:)

[slayer]

i get quite a few in my pots .it dose need to be a real big spider to be worth cooking as the meat is minamal compared to the browns
all i do is place the crab in a soucepan fill with very cold water add some salt and bring to the boil very slowly ,if you dont do this slowly the crab will eather shed its claws or its shell will crack like jamie crab ,wich you dont want as this will allow water to get in the meat,and take away the flaver of the crab,once the water is boiling i alow 15 to 20 min depending on the size of the crab and then drain the water and let the crab stand for one hour then you can then remove the lungs and your crab is ready to pick or fridge, i prefer to fridge it for 24 hours as the meat seems alot easyer to get out,
ps i would never ever cook a dead crab , your just asking for trouble,

[Slinger]

Thanks for that Slayer.

Superb carp mate:notworthy

[slayer]

littlebabybird ,hope this helps

[geffaz]

think its now against the law to drop a "awake" crab or lobster into
the pot (lets face it its a bit mean) like jamie says 20 mins in the freezer will
put it in a coma! tho to be on the safe side get the water warm so boiling point isnt fare away (getting soft in my own age)

[slayer]

think its now against the law to drop a "awake" crab or lobster into
the pot (lets face it its a bit mean) like jamie says 20 mins in the freezer will
put it in a coma! tho to be on the safe side get the water warm so boiling point isnt fare away (getting soft in my own age)

far to soft geff mate , they go to sleep pretty quick once that water warms up
i did say place in cold water first, not drop in boiling water if you was to drop it in boiling water it would shed its legs and theres a good chance the shell will crack. and you dont wont that!!!!!

[littlebabybird]

thank you slayer
the deed is done!
will pick it tomorrow :)

i know we cant eat the rest of the bait robbing little ones, but is there anything usefull i can do with them?

[shooz]

I met a guy years ago who caught a lot of spiders while fishing, he used to break the large claw off and put the rest back. Crabs grow new claws so this seems like a good idea :) He gave me about 10 claws(he had a ton of them) and they made a nice meal. It is obviously worth eating the whole crab but a lot more fiddly than smashing one big claw which holds most of the meat in the crab anyway!

[albe2]

Last year i saw the biggest spider i have ever seen,it was sat straddled across a pot i was hauling and must have been about four foot long ,as it engulfed the entire pot.
It gave me such a shock that i hesitated from grabbing it and it dropped back into the water.Bugger!

[alan.w]

You want spider crabs?make for west wales during the summer months!Millions of the blighters.

[Jamie Donnelly]

they make amazing bass and smut bait!!!! as well as cod!!

try it!!

Jamie

[blowin]

..... he used to break the large claw off and put the rest back. Crabs grow new claws so this seems like a good idea
Perhaps that is not too inhumane if only one claw is taken but what if both claws are torn off ? Wouldn't the creature then starve to death before it could grow new ones ?
As someone asked earlier , for how long would you cook just the claws and legs ? Cheers .