How to store live crabs

Crabs are actually quite hardy creatures. We hardly see any dead crabs when we buy them at the market. A colleague of mine once bought crabs online and took several days to deliver them. He thought they would be suffocated to death, but they were still alive when he received them. One has to sigh at the crab's desire to survive. From this point of view, it is very convenient to preserve the crabs you bought if you can't finish eating them. If you want to keep crabs alive longer, what is a good way to store them?

How to preserve live crabs

Freshly bought crabs should be properly stored to avoid many bacteria and toxins during processing. So how do you preserve live crabs? Generally speaking, there are two ways to preserve live crabs: in the refrigerator and in a pond. You can preserve them according to the conditions to keep the crabs fresh.

1. Storing crabs in the refrigerator

Find a suitable foam box according to the size of your refrigerator's freezer, and put it in the freezer in advance to see if it fits. Then tie the crab's legs and feet and put it in a foam box. Place them close together one by one, try to fill up one layer and then add more. Add water to the foam box until the water covers the surface of the crabs. Then cover the foam box and put it in the freezer of the refrigerator. When you want to eat crabs, just take them out and thaw them. This way of preserving crabs can ensure the freshness of the crabs to the greatest extent.

2. Preserving crabs in temporary ponds

If you buy more crabs than you can eat in three to five days, you cannot use the above method to store live crabs. The best way is to use your own bathtub as a temporary storage pool and let the crabs enjoy it first: because the walls of the bathtub are smooth, the crabs cannot escape. Then gently pour the crabs into the bathtub and fill it with water to just bury the crabs. If the crabs stand up their eight legs, they can breathe on the water surface. Depending on the storage time and quantity, you can add a small amount of small fish and shrimp. Using this method, crabs can generally be stored for more than 7 days or longer. The survival rate of good quality crabs can reach more than 95%.

Special reminder: If you are not eating it immediately, please do not wash it with water, otherwise the crab will die. If the indoor temperature does not exceed 15℃, there is no need to put it in the refrigerator. Under normal circumstances, it can be stored for 5-7 days, but the crab will become thinner if stored for too long. The taste will not be affected if eaten within 3 days.

How to store steamed crabs

Although cooked crabs can be eaten overnight, putting them in the refrigerator does not mean they are in a safe. Cooked crabs that are stored for too long can still be a killer that easily causes poisoning. In leftover crabs overnight, histidine will be decomposed into histamine by some microorganisms. Although reheating can kill pathogenic microorganisms, it cannot destroy the toxins. Therefore, eating cooked crabs that have been stored for too long may also cause histamine poisoning. Cooked crabs also pose a risk of food poisoning if not stored properly. Since crab meat is tender, nutrients will easily be lost if it is cooked and then stored in the refrigerator, so it is better to cook it before eating.

1. If you don’t finish eating it that night, wait until it cools down completely, wrap it in plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator. If conditions permit, you can also freeze it. However, the cooked crabs stored in the refrigerator should not be eaten later than noon of the next day. Moreover, when eating them, try to steam them thoroughly or heat them in boiling water for half an hour after boiling. Avoid eating crabs without seasonings, because crabs are cold in nature. It is best to add some minced ginger, vinegar, etc. when eating to remove fishy smell, kill bacteria and drive away the cold. Eating crabs in this way can ensure that you enjoy the deliciousness while taking safety into consideration. But if it goes bad, it is best to throw it away. Although it is wasteful, health is more important.

2. If you want to store cooked crabs for a short time, you can cover them with plastic wrap and place them in a cool and ventilated place. Generally, it can be kept fresh for 6-8 hours, provided that the weather is cold and the temperature is low. If the weather is hot and you want to preserve cooked crabs for a short period of time, you should put them in the refrigerator. In this way, the crabs from noon can be preserved until the evening, but not overnight. If you want to store cooked crabs for a long time, such as overnight, you should put the crabs in the freezer. However, directly freezing the cooked crabs can easily cause them to lose moisture, becoming very dry and unpalatable. When freezing, you can freeze the crabs together with the soup used to cook them to preserve the freshness of the crabs.