Boiling crab in the cockpit - what do you use?

We freeze picked crab all the time and use it all winter. Is it as good as fresh? Of course not, but pretty damned good. We use it "in something".....that is, as crab cakes, or crab pasta, or crab green salad, and it is just fine.

What I do is pack about 1 pound picked crab into a 1 pt Mason jar. I pack it tightly using a blunt stick. As I pack it I add a very small bit of salt water from time to time as I go to eliminate any air pockets. I leave about 1/2" at the top. Then freeze it solid. Once frozen, take it out of the freezer and add enough salt water to fill that half inch. Then back in the freezer and you're done. The 1/2 of water and tight packing sort of seals it against freezer burn.
 
"I always think it's funny when people say that they don't want the "fishy" smell in the boat (or the house). My wife's friend always makes her husband use the outside grill to keep the "stink" of cooking salmon outside. Having grown up in a family with native heritage, I'm reminded of my uncle. He was a gillnetter and drove a Lincoln Continental because the trunk was big enough to hold an night's catch and deliver it to the processor. Needless to say that his car smelled "fishy." We would get in and every time he would say "Ahhhh, smells like money."

Mark
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Mark, That is funny. I grew up working on a dairy. The smell (source was cow pooh) was always referred to as fertilizer and the the smell, was "dairy dollars".

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

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Pat here, don't know if Patty saw this post.

We started cooking them whole then cleaning them last year after we were at Chris and Janet Erickson's dock on Center Island and I watched how Chris was doing it.

Old way - whack then with a crab whacker, take the back off, break them in half, removed gills and guts, then cook the cleaned halves.

New way - cook them whole, let them cool. Take the backs off, removed gills and guts, swish them in salt water to clean, and ice them down.

New way is much faster and easier for me, and the meat is in better shape. Do they taste better? Maybe, maybe not, I love crab either way!


TyBoo":1tc9v56w said:
All my crabbing is close to home so I have never considered cooking them on board.

Patty - when did you guys decide to start cooking them whole? Pat was always adamant about cleaning them first. To tell you the truth I think he enjoyed pithing the little buggers.

The reason I'm asking is because the other day I got one of those Crack'n Crab Cleaners to try when crabbing starts back up down here and was wondering if you notice the difference in flavor cooked whole vs. cleaned. I don't eat the guts like the Finns do but the old timers say they make the crab meat taste better when cooked whole. I guess we will find out.

The local marine store has a video of the crab cleaner gizmo playing all the time and they finally hooked me. It sure looks like it makes the cleaning easy and less messy, even though it only takes about six seconds to clean a whole cooked one the regular way.
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