Crab Picking Season – Our Favorite Step by Step Guide to Picking Crabs!

Crab picking season is upon us here on the eastern shore, so what a better time to share our favorite crab picking techniques. Whether you’re a picking pro or just a starting to immerse yourself into this delicious tradition, ensure you have good company, a nice chilled beer or a glass of your favorite white vino so you can truly enjoy this experience!

First thing you’ll want to do when picking crabs is remove the legs, twist, pull or snap them off but leave the two back fins as this will help later to remove more meat.

Lay your crab claw down and give it a tap or two using your mallet, flip it over and hit that claw right by its pinchers using the edge of your mallet, it should break open nicely while pulling out your first enjoyable lump of meat. Some people might use a blunt knife and tap it with the mallet to break the claw open, do whatever you might find easiest. 

Now we start working on the rest of the crab. Flip your crab upside down, expose the apron by pulling it back with a knife or your fingers, break that off. Once that’s removed, you’ll find a bit of a gap on the back of the crab; you can use that to pry the top of the shell off. Discard the top of the shell and remove the lungs and gills. You might find some mustard here, which is the yellow stuff… it’s considered a delicacy by some people but if you’re not a fan or if it weirds you out just go ahead and remove that. 

Once you’ve removed the lungs and gills you can break the crab in half.

Now you’d want to remove that back fin by breaking it at the joint, you should be able to pull out the most beautiful jumbo lump crab meat! This area is the sweetest and most juicy meat as it is the biggest muscle of the crab.

You’ll notice that the rest of the crab now has thin layers of shell under the gills and lungs you removed previously, you can go ahead and break or peel that away exposing more delicate white meat for you to pick at an enjoy! Repeat this step on your other half and enjoy your crab picking experience!

Traditionally you can dip your crab meat in melted butter and have a side of your favorite seasoning at hand, we personally love old bay but who’s judging! If you are feeling adventurous you can try this out! The only thing my ex-husband was good for apart from creating my two beautiful children, is that he taught me this delicious seasoned dipping butter, ha-ha jokes but i promise you the butter is great! Made up of vinegar, old bay, melted butter and a nice generous splash of beer. You just want to add your ingredients to the melted butter and taste as you go, it should be slightly sweet from the butter a little tangy from the vinegar, salty from the old bay and that splash of beer rounds it all out.

Another great thing about picking crabs is that you might have left over crabs, and you’ll be able to pick enough meat to make crab cakes the next day! Be sure to follow our blogs to find out our favorite crab cake recipes! Whichever way you choose to eat your crabs I hope you have fun and truly enjoy this special moment caching up with your loved ones.