The best tasting crab (Page 3): The secret to cooking crab is to use ocean saltwater when you boil them. Many meat markets don't go to this trouble, so the crab you buy is often rather...

Gary Northrop Loc: Richland WA

The secret to cooking crab is to use ocean saltwater when you boil them. Many
meat markets don't go to this trouble, so the crab you buy is often rather tasteless.
I learned this 60 years ago, catching/eating dungeness crabs on the West Coast.
(You should add salt to plain water if you cook it at home.) When I buy at the market
I always ask to taste a small claw to see if it has been cooked in saltwater. If not, forget it.

FourchonLa. Loc: Fourchon Louisiana, South Louisiana

Gary Northrop wrote:

The secret to cooking crab is to use ocean saltwater when you boil them. Many
meat markets don't go to this trouble, so the crab you buy is often rather tasteless.
I learned this 60 years ago, catching/eating dungeness crabs on the West Coast.
(You should add salt to plain water if you cook it at home.) When I buy at the market
I always ask to taste a small claw to see if it has been cooked in saltwater. If not, forget it.

We use a seasoned water to boil our seafood. Zatarain’s crab boil Is excellent if you’ve never had it. We also add some or all of the following. Corn on the cob, onions, garlic, lemons, potatoes, Cajun sausage, artichokes and even mushrooms. I’ve never had steamed seafood so I can’t comment on it.

Fredfish Loc: Prospect CT.

Probably a toss up between King crab,(frozen) and Blue crab (fresh). When I had my boats in the salt,we used to crab in the Hammonasset River, and even pick them off the pileings and seawall in the marina. Some years better than others as far as size goes,but none fresher. And when they are molting, doubleheader! One for the steamer, and one to bread and deep fry. Nothing like a fresh softshell crab sandwich after a hard day fishing.

FourchonLa. Loc: Fourchon Louisiana, South Louisiana

Fredfish wrote:

Probably a toss up between King crab,(frozen) and Blue crab (fresh). When I had my boats in the salt,we used to crab in the Hammonasset River, and even pick them off the pileings and seawall in the marina. Some years better than others as far as size goes,but none fresher. And when they are molting, doubleheader! One for the steamer, and one to bread and deep fry. Nothing like a fresh softshell crab sandwich after a hard day fishing.

Fried soft shell crab po-boy Now you’re talking.

Gordon Loc: Charleston South Carolina

FourchonLa. wrote:

Fried soft shell crab po-boy Now you’re talking.

Im with you on that one

FourchonLa. Loc: Fourchon Louisiana, South Louisiana

Gordon wrote:

Im with you on that one

We used to crab at a friends camp on Lake Catherine outside of New Orleans in the summer when we were younger. We kept a pen in the lake to put the molting crabs in and would check on them daily as we added new crabs to the pen. Soft shell crabs on demand.

Gordon Loc: Charleston South Carolina

FourchonLa. wrote:

We used to crab at a friends camp on Lake Catherine outside of New Orleans in the summer when we were younger. We kept a pen in the lake to put the molting crabs in and would check on them daily as we added new crabs to the pen. Soft shell crabs on demand.

They are hard to come by here.

JimRed Loc: Coastal New Jersey, Belmar area

In my childhood days (late 1940s- mid 1950s) crabbing at our local tidal river was great. The two marinas docked a number of party boats. The mates would clean or fillet the catch for their customers and discard the heads, guts, racks etc into the river. That provided plenty of forage for the crabs so there were plenty of them and they grew to a nice size. You could harvest a bushel in an hour or so from the docks and bulkheads.
Fast forward to the last few years...you are no longer allowed to discard the fully biodegradable refuse in the river; they are filling garbage cans instead. As a result the crab population is down and without that crab “magnet” they are spread out widely. You can still get a bushel, but it takes most of the day. And instead of that slightly fishy seaport smell, you are sometimes assaulted by the stink of uncollected cans of offal.

fishy Loc: Susanville, CA

When I was a kid, living in Eureka, Calif, I would go to the harbor with my dad. .. He would by Dungeness crab right off the boat...25 cents each...then a stop at the local bakery for fresh baked French bread...then feast time

saltwater catman Loc: charleston,sc

like king crab the best so far

davisrich Loc: Eastern Washington

We live both in Washington and Alaska. The Alaska Dungeness is unbeatable, Washington Dungeness a close second. Snow crab, OK, Obelio crab, OK-- King crab fresh is super good, frozen OK. We had Brown King Crab, Mostly not available anymore. It was definitely the best. Went to the East Coast and FL to visit and just could not get excited about Blue Crab, but maybe we did not get the best they had. We like big chunks of fresh crab right out of the cooker.

Fishing Fool Loc: redding, ca

I prefer king crab, however Dungeness is hard to beat. We usually bring back 40 from Eureka every fall and have a crab feed.

Just1Fish Loc: Woodstock, GA

Northwest crab is unbeatable. The crabs in Florida are tiny now. They used to be huge, not as big a Dungeness, but great big.
Not worth harvesting now. Throw them back. Unless you know that secret place.....

20mules Loc: Chesaw, Washington

coos bay tom wrote:

I have eaten Snow crab- spider crab-king crab-box crab-Japanese crab which are really local crab and Dungenese. I have never eaten blue crab or stone crab. Of all the crab I have tasted Dungenese is by far the best. My nieghbor from Maryland insists blues are the best.. I was was wondering what every body else thinks.

The best tasting Crab definitely has to be the one on my plate at meal time.

Gordon Loc: Charleston South Carolina

20mules wrote:

The best tasting Crab definitely has to be the one on my plate at meal time.