1. When buying live crabs, look for ones that display plenty of movement, with snapping claws. They must be humanely killed before cooking. Put the crab into the freezer for five minutes, then on to a board with the belly facing up. Take a large chef’s knife and plunge it straight down into the crab’s head, right between or just below the eyes. Put into a pan of boiling water and cook for five minutes per 450g (1lb) or steam for eight minutes per 450g (1lb).
2. To serve whole, simply set on the table with crackers and crab picks for diners to use themselves.
3. To remove the cooked meat, put the crab on a board with the belly facing up. Twist off the legs and claws. Lift off and discard the ‘apron’ (tail) – long and pointed in a male, short and broad in a female. Pull the body out of the shell and remove and discard the feathery gills and grey stomach sac. Cut the body into pieces and pick out the meat using your fingers and a crab pick or small knife. Scrape the brown meat from the shell, keeping it separate from the white meat. If there is roe in a female, keep that separate, too.
4. Crack the claws with the back of a large knife, and pull out the meat in a single piece or in large chunks.
5. Cut through the shells of the legs with scissors on one side, then cut through the opposite side. Pull off the shell halves to expose the meat and remove.
Now try one of these Triple Tested crab recipes:
Simple crab salad
Crab quiche
Crispy crab cakes
An experienced and highly skilled team of food writers, stylists and digital content producers, the Good Housekeeping Cookery Team is a close-knit squad of food obsessives. Cookery Editor Emma Franklin is our resident chilli obsessive and barbecue expert, who spends an inordinate amount of time on holidays poking round the local supermarkets seeking out new and exciting foods. Senior Cookery Writer Alice Shields is a former pastry chef and baking fanatic who loves making bread and would have peanut butter with everything if she could. Her favourite carb is pasta, and our vibrant green spaghetti is her weeknight go-to. Lover of all things savoury, Senior Cookery Writer Grace Evans can be found eating crispy corn and nocellara olives at every opportunity, and will take the cheeseboard over dessert any time (though she cannot resist a slice of tres leches cake). With a wealth of professional kitchen know-how, culinary training and years of experience between them, they are all dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work (and if they don’t – we’ll have the answer for why*) every time (*90% of the time the answer is: “buy an separate oven thermometer”!).
