Cooking and cleaning a crab

"not without a fight, buddy"

Dungeness crab is a staple in many Vancouver restaurants - caught right in our backyard (well, hopefully a little further out, there's a lot of boat traffic out there).  I won't lie, it's not hard, but it can take a bit of time to get all the meat you paid for.  Even if you opt to purchase the cooked and picked "ready to eat" crab, you've got some work.  You will want to drain and squeeze the meat gently to get all the excess water out, then you'll need to go through the meat with your fingertips to look for tiny shell and cartilage fragments.  Crab cleaning operations work aggressively and at high speed - you will almost guaranteed have some shell bits hiding in there.  If you clean it yourself, you have the advantage of knowing that the meat was cooked just right, and you can allow yourself the time and care to remove the meat carefully and minimize any shell intrusion.  You can also take the care to get some of the finickier bits out in larger pieces, at a point where a commercial operation is just scraping the shell.  Those long crab picking utensils?  They are useful (and cheap), so go out and get a set if you don't have one already.  

I cook the legs and body different times, so at the midpoint, you will need to prepare yourself to quickly pull of steaming hot legs.  The more savage of my colleagues simply pull the legs off before cooking, but put yourself in the crab's position, and I'll think you'd rather be cooked yourself my way.  My cooking time may seem a bit short, but you don't want to overcook the meat (many people would cook the crab for 15 minutes or more).  It should be ample time to be able to free the meat from the shell, then you have the freedom to finish the cooking when serving the meal (warm it up in some drawn butter - yum!).  If serving cold, you can always gently steam it a bit more if you like, or even think ceviche and marinate it with a bit of citrus.

You will need:

1              small to medium dungeness crab (or other, but this cooking method is timed for this size of crab)
salt          about 1/2 C per gallon or 125 ml per 4 L of water
ice
a clean towel
tongs

Method:

 - put the crab in the freezer to put it in a dormant, sleepy state
 - get your water boiling
 - prepare an ice bath
 - salt the water, it should taste like going home to the ocean
 - thank the crab for its gift, and drop it in the water - set a timer for 4-6 minutes, depending on size
 - at the buzzer, as quickly as you can, pull the crab out, and with the towel, twist the legs off and ice down
 - return the body to the water and set the timer for another 4-6 minutes
 - transfer the body to the ice water and cool completely
 - for the legs, use a mallet or the back of a knife to crack the shell and pull out the meat - a strong and thin set of kitchen shears can also cut the shell, but be careful not to maul the meat with the inside blade
 - the claw will be tougher - but make sure you get the blade-shaped cartilage connected to the "thumb"
 - on the body, pull away the triangular "apron" on the belly
 - to open the body, lay it on its back hold firmly like you would a hamburger - with both thumbs, push against the belly section of the lip and it should come free - option #2 is to hold it down on its back, get your thumb right under and just inside the belly section and pull it away
 - remove the gills and intestine and head bits
 - save the yellowish coral - it can be a real treat
 - clean away at the shell -  the pieces of meat here will be smaller than the arms, but get it all
 - save the shells for a nice bisque
 - store the meat in a container on ice and serve within a day or two