Submerge your crab in the boiling water and allow to come back to the boil before allowing a further 20 minutes for a large crab such as the one shown. Killing the crab prior to cooking is humane and instantaneous, but it also avoids the crab from shedding limbs through shock, which often happens when boiling alive.
It minimizes the risk of food poisoning
So, to minimize the risk of food poisoning, crustaceans are often cooked alive.
In most countries, they are excluded from the scope of animal welfare legislation, so nothing you do to them is illegal. The result is that they are treated in ways that would clearly be cruel if inflicted on a vertebrate.
How long do you boil live crab? Start by bringing water to a boil, and add salt and any other seasoning you'd like. Then, add the crab to the water quickly bringing the water back up to a boil, and cook until the crab floats for 10 to 15 minutes. Then, remove the crab from the water and let them cool before serving.
The most important thing about cooking blue crab to note is that you cannot cook crabs that are dead; as soon as they die they start to rot and become toxic. If you are cooking fresh crabs, they must be alive.
Live crabs can be kept on ice for up to 24-48 hours at most, but cooking them within 8 hours is recommended. It is important to cook them immediately if they die. Mud crabs, Dungeness and Snow Crabs can be kept up to 48 hours if conditions are ideal. Blue crabs can be kept alive for up to 24 hours.
These xanthid crabs can accumulate two of the most lethal natural substances known - saxitoxin and tetrodotoxin - in their muscles and egg masses. Both saxitoxin and tretrodotoxin are so incredibly toxic, that as little as half of a milligram is capable of killing an average sized adult.
Crabs take four to five minutes to die in boiling water, while lobsters take three minutes.
Remove the spongy stomach and gills underwater, pulling away from the crab. Rinse it well, then crack the body in half. After this, continue rinsing the crab until it is clean, then crack the legs away or leave the crab in halves.
Lobsters and other shellfish have harmful bacteria naturally present in their flesh. Once the lobster is dead, these bacteria can rapidly multiply and release toxins that may not be destroyed by cooking. You therefore minimise the chance of food poisoning by cooking the lobster alive.
Select only live crab to prepare for freezing. Crab freezes better if not “picked” before freezing. Simply remove the back, legs, entrails and gills either before or after boiling the crab for 5 minutes. (Be sure to cool the crab quickly after it is cooked.)
So why do these crustraceans turn red when they're cooked? Lobsters and crabs have a pigment called astaxanthin in their shells, which has the ability to absorb blue light, making the shell appear red under certain conditions.
Crabs, lobsters and shellfish are likely to feel pain when being cooked, according to a new study. Jan. 16, 2013, at 6:00 p.m. Some say the hiss that sounds when crustaceans hit the boiling water is a scream (it's not, they don't have vocal cords).
Thus, crabs pass the bar scientists set for showing that an animal feels pain.
Submerge your crab in the boiling water and allow to come back to the boil before allowing a further 20 minutes for a large crab such as the one shown. Killing the crab prior to cooking is humane and instantaneous, but it also avoids the crab from shedding limbs through shock, which often happens when boiling alive.
Boiling ensures the seasoning gets evenly distributed throughout the crab and keeps it moist. If you steam the crabs all the seasoning ends up on the outside shell and eventually on your fingers. It's not like Cheeto dust, either —you don't want to lick it off.
Those who enjoy cooking and eating crab should simply take precautions not to eat the viscera, located under the crab's back, and avoid using whole crabs in soups and other dishes.
Crab may be lower in mercury than many other kinds of seafood, but it can still be a concern depending on how it is caught and prepared. Brown crab meat can also have high levels of cadmium, which is toxic if you take in too much. Crab also has a good bit of sodium (376 mgs in a 3-ounce portion).
Contrary to popular belief, the "mustard" is not fat, rather it's the crab's hepatopancreas, the organ responsible for filtering impurities from the crab's blood. Although many find its flavor distinct and delicious, it is recommended that you do not eat this since many chemical contaminants concentrate in the organ.
Once cooked and cooled, peel back the top shell and rinse the crab with water to remove the guts and gills.
Once your water is boiling, toss in the cleaned crab halves. Once the crab is in the pot, bring the water back to a boil and cook for 11 minutes. After 11 minutes, remove the cooked crabs and rinse or submerge them in cold water to stop the cooking process. Place the crabs on ice or serve.
You'll want to cook the crabs before you clean them. Boiling is more common, but steaming crabs emerge from the pot less water-logged and more filled with their own crabby juices. To Boil: Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add enough salt so it tastes as salty as the ocean.