Equipment/Ingredients:
tablespoon kosher salt
1 (2-pound) whole live Dungeness crab
large pot
steamer rack or foil
colander
Directions:
Fill a large pot with 1 inch of water and stir in the salt. (Be sure your pot has a tightfitting lid.)
Place a steamer rack inside of the pot. (If you don’t have a steamer rack, lightly bunch a long piece of foil so that it looks like a rope. Then make a figure eight out of the foil rope and set it in the pot.)
Bring the water to a boil over high heat.
Using tongs, pick up the crab, grasping it from behind and placing one arm of the tongs on the belly and the other on the back with the legs on either side.
Place the crab back side up in the steamer rack.
Cover and return the water to a full boil, about 1 minute.
Reduce the heat to medium high and steam until the crab is cooked through, about 15 minutes more.
Using tongs, remove the crab to a colander and rinse under cold water until cool enough to handle.
Cleaning Your Cooked Crab
- Remove the apron
For a Dungeness crab, place it shell side down and lift off and discard the triangular tail flap, or apron. Watch out for the spines on the bottom side of the crab, which are sharp. - Remove the top shell
Turn over the crab and, holding it by the legs, lift off and discard the hard top shell. If desired, scoop out and reserve the pale yellow crab fat in the shell. (This fat has a savory, slightly briny flavor and can be used to flavor butter or sauces.) - Remove the gills and intestines
Next, pull off and discard the grayish, feathery gills along both sides of the body, the jaw section at the front, and the intestines in the middle. - Twist off the claws and legs
Rinse the body well. Using your hands, twist the claws and legs from the body. Using a large chef’s knife or your hands, cut or break the body into halves lengthwise along its center and then into quarters. - Extract the meat
Using your fingers or a lobster pick, tiny fork or paring knife, remove the meat from all the body cavities. Switch to a nutcracker, lobster cracker or mallet and gently crack the claws and any large legs in several places. Break away the shell pieces and remove the meat.