"Picking" a Blue Crab
Created | Updated Nov 28, 2007
It should be noted that in and around the Baltimore Area (and the Chesapeake Region in general) that there is a distinct and rigorous process involved in "picking" one's now prepared crab, and is as follows:
1) It is considered barbaric and obscene for one to not remove the arms and legs from the crab before proceeding any further. These can be cracked open and eaten (through the use of mallet, or for thrill-seekers, with the bare hands) either immediately or after consumption of the body as a whole without much controversy.
2) Flip the crab over so it is on its "back", so the white abdomen/thorax is what you see. For convenience in complying with later steps, make sure the eyes are facing away from you.
3) There will be a small flap-like structure among the cartilage there, lift it up and pull towards yourself.
4) The crab's abdomen/thorax area will now be relatively easy to separate from the "back". Do this.
5) At this point, the lungs of the crab (which will be gray and feathery, near the center of the body) should be removed, due to their
offensive taste.
6) Also to be removed are any other internal organs/debris/fat, which will be yellowish in color.
7) Now split the crab in half lengthwise for easier access to hidden meats. Doing this by hand is orthodox, and actually simpler than using a mallet, which will simply make you look like an idiot who has never seen a blue crab before, which you may be. Nevertheless:
8) It is at this stage alone that the meat may be picked out of the crab and consumed. Use of knives to reach inside the many cavities of the former crab's exoskeleton is perfectly acceptable, as well as, of course, doing so by hand.
-However, be warned that eating crab in Baltimore or some such, and notably the entire "picking" process, can prove to be quite painful to the hands and fingers of the practitioner, due to the numerous sharp bits of the exoskeleton combined with the "Old Bay" Seasoning and steam contained within and without the crab itself.
1) It is considered barbaric and obscene for one to not remove the arms and legs from the crab before proceeding any further. These can be cracked open and eaten (through the use of mallet, or for thrill-seekers, with the bare hands) either immediately or after consumption of the body as a whole without much controversy.
2) Flip the crab over so it is on its "back", so the white abdomen/thorax is what you see. For convenience in complying with later steps, make sure the eyes are facing away from you.
3) There will be a small flap-like structure among the cartilage there, lift it up and pull towards yourself.
4) The crab's abdomen/thorax area will now be relatively easy to separate from the "back". Do this.
5) At this point, the lungs of the crab (which will be gray and feathery, near the center of the body) should be removed, due to their
offensive taste.
6) Also to be removed are any other internal organs/debris/fat, which will be yellowish in color.
7) Now split the crab in half lengthwise for easier access to hidden meats. Doing this by hand is orthodox, and actually simpler than using a mallet, which will simply make you look like an idiot who has never seen a blue crab before, which you may be. Nevertheless:
8) It is at this stage alone that the meat may be picked out of the crab and consumed. Use of knives to reach inside the many cavities of the former crab's exoskeleton is perfectly acceptable, as well as, of course, doing so by hand.
-However, be warned that eating crab in Baltimore or some such, and notably the entire "picking" process, can prove to be quite painful to the hands and fingers of the practitioner, due to the numerous sharp bits of the exoskeleton combined with the "Old Bay" Seasoning and steam contained within and without the crab itself.
