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In the Kitchen: Get cracking!
By Gwen Schoen - gschoen@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PST Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Story appeared in TASTE section, Page F3
In the Kitchen video: How to crack and clean a crab
The thought of cracking and cleaning a whole crab can be intimidating. Ed Jayousi, owner of Fins Seafood Market & Grill, however, is a master at the task. He gave us a few tips.
First, turn the crab back-side down on your cutting board. Along the crab's belly, at the head end, you will see an oval piece of shell called the apron. Lift it up toward the eyes and snap it off.
Turn the crab back-side up. Put your thumb in the hole left from removing the apron and lift up to remove the back shell. A lot of the spongy, inedible parts will come off with the back. Remove the viscera, gills and mandibles (mouth).
Thoroughly rinse the crab under cold running water and remove all loose material. Drain it well.
At this point you have two options. Some people like to separate the body from the legs and serve them plated together. Or you can break the body in half, then separate the legs leaving a portion of the body segment attached to each leg. Jayousi prefers this because it makes the crab easier to eat.
Once the legs have been separated, snap the claws back to crack the shell, but leave them attached to the legs.
Use a mallet or hammer to gently crack the shell of each claw, leg and body section at the edge of the joints.
To serve crab in the shell, simply plate it with wedges of lemon and dipping sauce or melted butter. Or you can remove the crabmeat from the shell pieces with a small fork.
To watch a video of Jayousi cleaning and cracking Dungeness crab, visit www.sacbee.com/taste.
In the Kitchen video: How to crack and clean a crab
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Ed Jayousi of Fins Seafood Market & Grill shows how to crack and clean a fresh crab. Florence Low / flow@sacbee.com
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