Are you referring to that white squiggly thing that appears to be the cooked vas deferins?

 

Yes I am. I've been doing this for well over 25 years and I swear I've never noticed this before. Perhaps they were there and I didn't notice? But it definitely turns my already weak stomach a bit. Going to have to Google vas deferins tho!

Iron Mike, yes I am cooking them whole with 'innards and all'. I have seen the method your referring to done before but, I guess its hard to teach an old dog new tricks. Until now that is!

 

Are you cooking them whole? Innards and all?

Suggestion.......bring em home alive in a cooler rigged with an aerator at the least.

Pull em out alive, and lay them on their back on a chunk of 2x12 that you don't mind destroying.

Arm yourself with a long vegetable cleaver and a heavy deadblow hammer.

Set the cleaver mid-carapice so as to split the crab evenly down the middle.

Hit the cleaver HARD to split the crab, peel off the shell and shake out the innards into a bucket.

Wash the crab with a soft spray from the hose and toss the cleaned halves into your big pot.

Load the pot with water, a couple tablespoons of kosher salt, some Old Bay seasoning to your liking and maybe a little creole if your into spicier stuff.

Boil until the surface foams and the fat layer rises to the top. dump through a strainer so as to not overcook your dungies. Allow to cool and serve!

I wouldn't sweat what you have there. I've seen worse, and if you split em before you cook em, you get all that nasty crap out of there beforehand anyway.

You'll also be able to see if any of the crab are beginning to release toxins once you split em too. If you open one and it's starting to secrete a black substance near it's "mouth,"then it was on it's way to dying and killing the rest of your crab. As long as the black stuff washes off cleanly, cook away. If it has stained the meat in the body, it's best to cut that away as I think it has a detrimental effect on the taste.

 

I've never seen a parasite in a crab. That looks like some of its innards.

There is an easier way to process them whole. Grab the crab on either side of its carapace with your fingers above its legs and under the edge of its shell. Hit them on a the sharp edge of a cleaning station or counter right down the center on their bottom side. It cracks them nicely. Grabbing one side of the legs and claw in your hand, pull the legs and that half of their body toward the other half. It should come off in one piece. Shake once to remove any guts and repeat with the other side. Super quick and requires no tools. You can keep those halves on ice for up to 12 hours before cooking them.

Iron Mike is on the right track but the cleaver can do unnecessary damage. They taste so much better when you don't cook them in their own guts!

Chass
ct

 

I'd love to see a video of this...

 

I just finished cleaning our two limits and I'd say I found them in about 60% of them. And, I have to revise my initial post that they seemed to only be in the soft ones, I also found them in the hard/full ones as well.

 

Those are innards for sure. Ive seen those before.

 

i have cooked both ways, i prefer the lid on method because they last longer. that being said, the other way is less messy. i will show your picture to a parasitologist and see what he says...

 

I noticed the same thing last week after cleaning three days worth of crab. Can't say I noticed it before, but prefer not to really check out the gut juice when I clean them...

 

Interesting. Some pull the shell from the back, others the front. I grab legs in both hands and hook the side of the shell on something solid and then peel it from the side. Then it's a quick job to butterfly them and wash the gunk off the meat.

I know they ain't cats, but there really are more ways to do it.

 

That's the baby maker. Vas deferens is the duct that conveys the spermatophores to the female's vag1na.

 

after readin this: http://www.biolbull.org/content/190/3/336.full.pdf I do believe you are right. who would have thought that crabs had such big balls! I found some parasites that live on crabs but all were a lot smaller than this. looks like you gave him a vasectomy.

 

I use a 5 gal bucket for guts/body. Grab the legs(one side in one hand and one side with other hand) Holding the crab this way slam it into the top edge of the bucket at the center of the crab. Legs and sides will pop off, shake to remove guts into the bucket, and top of crab. Pull the lung type material wash and cook.

 

Are you boiling in fresh or salt water?

 

I use tap water with a handful of Kosher salt. I've been doing it the same way for years. Having a hard time though getting the thought of those things out of my mind so I can eat the stuff and feel good about giving it away which is where most of my bounty goes since I'm single.

 

Am I the only one who uses guts as a dipping sauce?

I try not to eat it just because it's where toxins build up.... but don't mind them.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSZxBtslk0E&feature=related

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSZxBtslk0E&feature=related

That's how we do it. Another couple examples...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBVFx9wtWCk&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6ddCTkSkWY&feature=fvwrel

Especially when we're camped out on the boat using a smaller stove, the halves fit in a smaller pot, and take less water so it's easier to cook with fewer BTU's.

RO

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajALO1JVIDs

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajALO1JVIDs

I do NOT eat crab like that. 30 years of catching, cleaning, cooking and eating crab has taught me there are far better ways. I don't use any tools at all. My teeth are much more careful than his cracker and I never cook my crabs whole. Crab "butter" is just guts. I eat all kinds of strange foods but crab guys just isn't one of them. I don't cook my fish with their guts in, why would I cook my crab that way? He did not clean out the guts even after he cracked it. Oh well, to each their own. Its aint my mouth that one is going into!

Chass
ct

 

For the guys that clean their crab prior to cooking, buy yourself a steamer or rig you crab boiler to steam instead of boiling in water. Your crab will have so much more flavor when the flavor isnt boiled out. I will say every once in a while i will cook one whole and drink some butter.

 

I tried steaming them this year as opposed to boiling them and i would agree that he crab had more flavor and seemed more moist than boiled.
No bueno on the "butter" however.

 

I usually just crab in the ocean and take a 5 gallon water jug out on the boat with us and fill it with fresh sea water to cook my crabs in. Sometimes we steam them sometimes we boil them, seems to work for us.:flag2:

 

Back, split, gill, shake the guts off with a quick snap and steam in seawater. Fast and easy and the girls don't think it's yucky.

I like crab butter, but not as much as my wife and daughter don't.

I'm no biologist, but it wouldn't surprise me at all if that worm has something to do with crab reproduction. I have seen that in the guts of many a male crab, esp around this time of year.

 

Thank you for getting back on subject. Seriously though, I've felt obligated in a way to show people who I've shared the crab with the picture and, surprisingly, (to me) they've taken it anyway. Guess I just need to put the big boy pants on and get over it.

 

What a debate... clean first before you cook or cook crab whole?

When you buy crab in the store... how are they cooked? If this was a problem with buying cooked whole crab in the store, you would think the commercial industry wouldn't be able to sell crab like this.

I have ate crab for a lot of years (both ways) and I prefer to cook my crab whole, then place on ice for a few hours, and then crack and thoroughly clean... this way, is the best crab I have tasted!

 

I hold them by the back legs, set them over the edge of a 5 gallon bucket and hit them so they crack in the middle, then pull off the back, shake out the innards (into said bucket). You end up with two nicely cleaned halves. We recently started boiling in sea water (we've got a dedicated clean 5 gallon bucket for transport) and will never go back to salted tap water.

As for the worm looking thing...never seen one! But as others have said, I'm guessing it's found in the innards somehow, and cleaning before cooking takes care of that problem.