Step 1
Start by taking your cooked crab and twisting off the claws, pulling them off the body.
Step 2
Then with the underside of the crab facing upwards, use your thumbs to push the belly and leg sockets up and off the shell to disconnect it from the main shell.
Step 3
The brown meat in the bowl-like shell can be scooped out with a spoon and kept to one side for later.
Step 4
Then start on the white meat in the body and legs. The handle of a teaspoon works really well for picking crab and you can use a set of nutcrackers, a hammer or two stones to crack the claws.
Step 5
The dead man’s fingers are the only bit of the crab you don’t want to eat. Be sure to discard these greyish gills. Apart from these, everything soft is edible in brown crab!
Step 6
Pick out the crab from all the cavities and legs. You might need to do some cracking around the body to get access to some of the pockets of white meat here.
Step 7
For the two large claws crack them with a clean tap but not too hard. You don’t want the shell splintering off and into the meat. Strip off as much crab as you can and then pick through it one more time to remove any stray pieces of shell.
Step 8
And there you go! It’s time to get cooking (check out some crab recipes below). You can also store the meat in an airtight container in the fridge for 5-7 days.
Watch James and skipper Francis show you how it's done
How to prepare a crab
Put your crab and scallop skills to the test
Prep time
10 mins
Cooking Time
15 mins
Prep time
15 mins
Cooking Time
60 mins
Prep time
5 mins
Cooking Time
10 mins
Prep time
5 mins
Cooking Time
5 mins