Northwest Fishing Reports

How do i prepare red rock crab? Im bringing home some from the pier saturday, and i dont know much about cleaning/cooking. Thanks for your help!

same way you do a dungie

I dont know how to do that.

Crab boil then eat.Some hot some cool. BrrrrP

There's a ton of videos at Youtube and a bunch of websites that tell you how to cook and clean. Basically it's just like lobster. Boil water, dump the crab in, cook for 10-15 min, pull out and clean. I know that the time depends on something like the size and all, but you just want to make sure you don't undercook them or over cook them. One thing you do want to do is cook them right away. I understand that they deteriorate really quickly once they are dead if not kept on ice.

You can clean them before you cook them or after. People seem to prefer cleaning after they are cooked. There's some pretty impressive videos of cleaning before you cook them. I've only cleaned them after they are cooked.

You can eat them warm (with some clarified butter) or pull out the meat and make things with them (crab cakes, grilled crab and cheese, etc.).

I'm not sure how the rock crab taste, I'd love to have a chance to try though.

There is a way to do it. Here is something that makes it look easy.


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I like Rock crab better than Dungeness. I think they taste sweeter. But they are smaller.

The way we do it is to clean it before. If you let the crab die a while before you cook or clean it, then lactic acid floods theeet an ruin it. So either kill it and place it right in the boiling water, place it in alive (they will not feel the pain) or kill and clean them. It's easy to clean them right on the water, you don't have to worry about disposing of guts then. ( remember to keep the backs tho incase stopped by the wdfw. Just the crab a wack to the underside which will instantly kill it, and then grasp the legs and twist in oppsite dirrections and it will come right apart, then just pull off the guts and gills and shake it off in the water, you can also pull the legs together to easily pop off the top shell. Boil for around 7-10 minutes. Hope you enjoy and keep having luck.

Whidbeyfisherman wrote:The way we do it is to clean it before. If you let the crab die a while before you cook or clean it, then lactic acid floods theeet an ruin it. So either kill it and place it right in the boiling water, place it in alive (they will not feel the pain) or kill and clean them. It's easy to clean them right on the water, you don't have to worry about disposing of guts then. ( remember to keep the backs tho incase stopped by the wdfw. Just the crab a wack to the underside which will instantly kill it, and then grasp the legs and twist in oppsite dirrections and it will come right apart, then just pull off the guts and gills and shake it off in the water, you can also pull the legs together to easily pop off the top shell. Boil for around 7-10 minutes. Hope you enjoy and keep having luck.

Here's a pretty good video on how to clean before cooking:
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I do like the idea of cleaning then cooking.

EDIT: The video Toni posted is the one I wanted, that guy is great!

Here's what we do for a crab boil (red rock or dungie)
We have an outside propane burner.
1. Red potatoes (quartered)
2. 1 pkg med frozen shrimp
3. 1 kielbasa quartered
4. Frozen corn on the cob quartered
5. shrimp and crab boil spice bags (2)
6. Old bay seasoning
7. 3-5 dungies (halved and cleaned)
8. 1/2 -1 gallon of saltwater brought back from the crabbing trip

As the water begins to get hot/boil (we use combo of the salt water brought back and fresh water)Prepare the crab.

I find a nice corner of an old wood table we have and with the belly of the crab facing me, I crack the crab in half. Discard the shells and insides. Pull of the gills (that's the light brown colored things about center of the crab), I spray water through it until it is clean.

By the time the crab is cleaned, the water is probably boiling. drop your seasoning bags in there and generously add old bay seasoning. Let all that get going for another 10 min or so.

Drop corn potatoes and kielbasa into the pot and let it cook until potatoes are ready. Then remove from water and keep covered under tin foil

Shrimp goes in by itself and should not need more that 3-5 min. Once they curl, they are ready to pull out. remove and then keep covered under tin foil.

lastly, drop your cleaned crab into the water. I drop about 6 1/2 pieces at a time. no more than that cause it cools the water down too much. After 10 min or so, I pull out 1 piece of crab, crack one of the claws and make sure that the meat is cook well. Repeat this process until you are through the crab.

Dip in butter and enjoy, enjoy, enjoy. Don't forget the cold brewskie.
Pradeep.

Here's a quick question for all of you: Who cooks their crab inside? Who cooks them outside? I find when I cook inside, I don't have an appatite for them when they are ready.

I cook outside for the simple reason that the outside burner can cook a lot more at one time. No other reason for me that that.

I have burners both inside and out. I cook my crabs at home inside. If I go for a couple days I'll haul the turkey fryer with propane to cook outdoors.

Outside, you can get a great crab boiler that is a giant metal pot on a single burner that is hooked up to a propane tank, it's designed for crab cooking, it's terrific and pretty inexpensive.

I put the crab on ice as soon as they come aboard to calm them down. I always clean the crab before cooking as there is a huge flavor difference, and do all cooking outdoors on a burner.

I would prefer cooking outside, but alas, I don't have an outdoor burner at present. I hate cooking them inside because they make the house STINK :(. Personally, I don't really mess with the red rock crabs, they don't taste nearly as good as the dungies IMO. When I catch a keeper crab I throw it straight into the bottom of my ice box and cover it with ice (I usually bring 2 bags of ice with me for the day). IF you use this technique make sure to drain the water out of the ice chest frequently, the fresh water that accumulates in the bottom will down the crabs and you do not want this. The crab will stay alive ALL DAY when quickly iced like this. Then, when I get home, I clean them first and then cook them. To clean I take an oar and split their back shell open, pull the tab down and off from their underside (the little plate that identifies them as a male), reach in and pull apart the back shell, pull off the mandibles up front, then just remove the gills and spray out the guts with a high pressure blast from the hose. If you clean BEFORE you cook the body meat will be much more appealing to eat, if you wait until after they are cooked the guts spoil the body meat IMO.


Mmmm..... crab.

We clean them at the dock, then take the parts home and immediately cook them. Since it's not the whole crab, I don't mind cooking them inside, but most of the time I will cook them out on the grill's side burner. Works great. I was uber impressed when I learned you could clean a crab before cooking it. Cuts down on the cooking time, the mess, and the amount of cleanup.....and you can cook more crab at one time. All good.

BentRod wrote:We clean them at the dock, then take the parts home and immediately cook them. Since it's not the whole crab, I don't mind cooking them inside, but most of the time I will cook them out on the grill's side burner. Works great. I was uber impressed when I learned you could clean a crab before cooking it. Cuts down on the cooking time, the mess, and the amount of cleanup.....and you can cook more crab at one time. All good.

AND FLAVOR!

Cleaning crabs is never a fun job.I clean mine immediately and keep the tops in case WDFW want a look see.I prefer to throw it all back to where it came from.I love my outdoor burner . Bought it at Joes years ago. Hook up a tank and you can take it anywhere.
Now which one of you brave souls eat and relish the Crab Butter?Personally its a bit powerfull for me. I've tried it but I dont go out of my way to render it.

I cook mine alive. I have always been told to never cook a dead crab and I never do. If I get them home and there is any dead ones I toss them. But Ive never had to do that cause I cook em pretty much right after catching them. As for the red rocks I love the flavor better then the dungies even. They are sweeter I think. This year I got way more dungies then red rocks last year was opposite. Way more red rocks then dungies its kinda wierd. I toss in some old bay seasoning and boil for around 10 mins roughly. Crack em open and clean em after they cool for a few min. Talk about a killer feast. Nothing better then fresh fish and crab. MMMMMMMM.