Cooking Louisiana  -  Picking or Peeling a Crab
Peeling a Crab, or Picking a Blue Claw Crab

My daddy (Percy) would refuse a free Filet' Mignon if boiled crabs were on the list of choices!

He was a master at getting every morsel of crab meat out of em' (those who knew him remember Crab Picking 101 by Professor Percy, or "plug" - one of his nicknames, he probably got from leaving the plug out of a boat). Well, he taught me how to do it too (not that I had a choice), but believe me, it's quick and easy and you'll get 99% of the meat out with few shells to chew on.

Before I go on, I understand that there are many "pro" crab pickers out there and this in no way belittles your fine art. In art people don't paint the same pictures, and pickers play different tunes. This is just another method.

Percy simply figured out that crabs had sections that could be dealt with differently. This is simple mechanics and with a little practice you'll wiz through crab picking like you've never done before. If my memory serves me right he could pick a crab, claws and all, in about 2 minutes or less.

If you want to see a site devoted to the Blue Claw Crab look at the bottom of the instruction page for the link, it's pretty cool.

Click Here to learn the picking process...


Enjoy