Question about dungeness crab

[judyw]

We received a fully cooked crab for Christmas that I have frozen. When thawed, do I steam it with the shell on or take the shell off and then reheat it. It looks like a real mess to remove the shell from what I've observed on the internet. I've never fixed a dungeness crab.

Do I thaw it in the frig or can I put it in cold water and thaw it that way.

 

[moyn]

Hi Judy, Welcome Back.... and I'm glad you posed this question>>

since I've seen them at Costco, and not bought them, cause I wouldn't know what to do with them.
The ones I see, I think???? are already cooked.
Hope we get some answers here.

 

[carianna-in-wa]

This is a real brain-teaser! Being from Washington, dungeoness is what we have

all the time, but I've never frozen it whole before. We always clean them right away and then freeze any leftover loose meat for making crab puffs. (I don't care for the texture change in crab after it's frozen so I only use it for putting in items I'm going to cook... crab puffs being our preferred choice.)

After thinking about this for awhile, I think I would steam it once thawed and then clean it. The body is kind of a bear to get the meat out of, but we think it's worth it. smileys/smile.gif I probably would thaw it in the fridge overnight, I don't know about the water thing. Maybe somebody else has an opinion on that.

Hope you enjoy. We love our dungeoness...

 

[lin_in_seattle]

Judy, hopefully the crab was already cleaned before it was shipped...

I would defrost it quickly....shouldn't take long, maybe half an hour as you make the rest of the meal...don't leave it out to get to room temperature. Then I would remove the large shell on top, cut it up, crack the shells with a hammer, slightly and sautee it in the shell, maybe in a butter and garlic sauce with ginger. Otherwise, I think I would just cut it up, without the large shell, cut off the legs, cut the white body part in half, crack it a bit, and steam it until hot. You don't want to over cook it. Carinna is right, the texture will be different since it's frozen, but should still be fine if handled carefully.

If it hasn't been cleaned and it's totally intack, I'd wait until it's somewhat defrosted but not much and then turn it over on it's back, take a large knife, cut it in half vertically, and then the large shell will lift off more easily and you can clean it. If you want to save the large shell for "presentation" it's a bit more difficult but can be done.

 

[durward]

When we have had them we steam them just to heat

through, much like crab legs. Then crack the claws and dig out the meat. same with body, discarding any gills or whatever.