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Crab Facts - More Crab Cooking Tips

Crabs are not only delicious, they are fascinating! For example, did you know:

Crab Facts

  • Crabs keep their teeth in their stomachs, not their mouths.

  • Crabs do not have endoskeletons, like most animals. Their shell is an exoskeleton, like insects have.

  • Continuing with the insect theme, crabs are arthropods, like butterflies, cockroaches, flies and other insects. Arthropods have segmented appendages.

  • Crabs have 10 legs (including their claws), which makes them decapods.

  • To tell the difference between a male and female crab, look on the bottom of their shells. Males have narrow abdomens, while females have wide ones.

  • The type of crab that is eaten most frequently in the world is the Japanese Blue Crab, otherwise known as the Horse Crab.

  • When crabs lose a claw, it will grow back.

  • Crabs are omnivorous. This means they eat anything and everything, including algae, worms, mollusks, crustaceans, fungi, detritus, bacteria and more.

  • The smallest crab is the Pea Crab, which is really the size of a pea. The largest crab is the Japanese Spider Crab, which can grow up to 12 feet across from toe to toe.

More Crab Cooking Tips

Crab seasons vary depending on the type of crab you want. King and Dungeness crab seasons generally run during the winter. Blue crab season starts in spring when the soft shell crabs are harvested and continues until December. You can eat almost the entire body of a crab except for the shell and a few inside structures.

For the freshest crab, buy live crabs whenever possible.

Live crabs should be alert and wave their claws when disturbed. Soft-shell crabs should be translucent and completely soft. Crabs should have a fresh aroma similar to salt water; do not purchase crabs that smell very fishy or sour. If you are buying cooked or thawed crab, notice the smell. It should be odor-free. If you are buying previously frozen crab, it should have been thawed on the day of purchase.

Do not buy or eat whole, uncooked, dead crabs.

They begin to deteriorate very quickly. Live crabs should be refrigerated and used on the day of purchase. Raw crabmeat should also be kept refrigerated and used within 24 hours. Thawed, cooked crab should be used within the same day of purchase. Vacuum-packed crab can be stored in the refrigerator up to a month and used within four days of opening. Canned crab is good for six months. Frozen crab can be stored up to four months at 0 degrees F.