How to kill swimming crabs

There are many types of crabs. When choosing the cooking method, you also need to consider the type of crab, so that the crab will taste better. Comb crab is a common type of crab. Its meat is relatively firm, but not too much. When cooking comb crabs, you should kill them first, because they are also living things. What we should do is to kill them quickly and then cook them.

How to kill crabs quickly?

1. Use chopsticks to poke directly between the crab's eyes and turn it slightly outwards, so that the crab appears to be in a state of suspended animation, but the meat still retains its delicious and chewy texture as when it was fresh.

2. The left and right edges of the crab are its most vulnerable and soft parts. You can use the edge of the table to gain leverage to peel off the crab's shell.

3. After peeling off the shell, clean the food gall stuck to the center of the shell.

Tips for cleaning crab stomach viscera!

(1) Soak in salt water

When you buy live crabs, you should first rinse the dirt off the surface of the crabs with clean water, and then soak them in light salt water for a period of time. This will allow the crabs to vomit out the dirt in their stomachs. During the soaking period, you should pay attention to changing the water frequently until the water vomited by the crabs is clean. Then pinch its back with your hands, and suspend it in the air close to the edge of the reel so that the pliers can just clamp the reel strings.

(2) Soaking in white wine

Let the crabs soak in the wine for 5-10 minutes to give them a thorough bath. The waste in the body can be excreted through the stimulation of alcohol, and the crabs can also be made drunk by white wine. The wine can not only remove the fishy smell of the crab, but also make the crab stop struggling, making it easier to handle later. Of course, if you don’t have white wine at home, you can scald it with 45-degree warm water. When the water temperature is high, the crab's legs and claws will fall off. People who have cooked crabs before will be aware of this. This will also prevent the crabs from being scalded to death and affecting their nutrition and taste. Put the crabs in warm water for about 3-5 minutes until they stop moving.

How to clean crab viscera:

(1) Excrement: Located in the front half of the crab shell, there is mud inside, which is where bacteria grow and multiply. The crab stomach is commonly known as "crab monk", which is a triangular bone bag in the center of the front edge of the back shell, filled with dirty sand.

(2) Intestines: Located in the middle of the crab navel, it appears as a black line.

(3) Except crab heart: located in the middle of crab roe. The crab heart is extremely cold and hexagonal in shape, also known as "hexagonal meat". It is in the center of the crab, under a black membrane. When eating, you can pick it out with the tip of the crab's toes.

(4) Gills: Two rows of soft, eyebrow-like things growing on the crab's abdomen, also known as "crab blinds". There are more pathogenic bacteria and dirt on both sides of the crab body.

Tips: The above parts are dirty and have no edible value. Do not chew them randomly to avoid food poisoning.

If crabs are not cleaned thoroughly before eating, it will be bad for your health, especially the cleaning of crab's internal organs, which requires more carefulness. Next, let’s take a look at how to clean crab viscera and the three steps to cleaning crabs.

Cleaning crabs step 2: scrub the crabs

When the crab has vomited out all the pollutants in its stomach, you should start brushing it with water. When brushing, be careful not to turn on too large a water flow. When brushing the crab with a toothbrush, brush hard.

Specific steps for brushing crabs:

(1) First scrub the sides, back, abdomen and mouth of the crab, then scrub the base of the crab legs and claws.

(2) The belly cover of the crab is the part that needs to be cleaned especially because it contains a lot of pollutants and excrement. Before cleaning, you should first squeeze out the excrement in the belly cover and then use a brush to clean the dirt on the belly cover.

(3) Finally, scrub the crab claws and rinse with clean water.