After the crab has been cooked, using your hands, separate the legs from the body and bend the body ‘down the middle’ to crack the body in half. Then split each body half open using the blade of your knife. In the photo one of the halves has already been split open ... and the other is part way through being opened up via the knife work. Doing this splits the main body into quarters.
By Steve Bain
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Extracting crab meat from a crab’s body and claws/legs is a simple process, but it does require patience.
Fortunately, it doesn't take long to get the hang of it.
The idea is to proceed slowly and try not to get any of the hard ‘shell’ mixed in with the meat.
I like to use a few tools to assist me: a one-piece knife; a ‘cracker’; and a teaspoon - I like the small spoon because its size is just right for poking into tiny places.
Now ‘attack’ each quarter individually — use the spoon as shown to ‘push’ and/or pry the crab meat out of each section (the meat in the body is divided by many ‘semi-stiff/hard’ membranes — you do not want to get any of the shell membrane mixed in with the meat).
Lift the larger pieces of crab meat out of the body sections — try to keep them ‘whole’, as much as you can (this makes it easier to spot any stray pieces/fragments of ‘shell’).
Discard the bit ‘semi-hard’ internal framework (off to the side) and keep the crab meat on the plate.
With the body meat sorted - now you may start on extracting the crab meat from the claws and legs.
Using the crab (or nut) cracker, or the back of a heavy knife handle — crack all of the main sections of the claws, joints, and legs (claws are shown here as examples). Note that the upper-claw piece makes a great ‘hooking’ implement for digging crab meat out of the legs and leg/claw joints. You can separate this ‘hook’ away from the rest of the claw by bending it back on itself with your fingers.
Insert the ‘hook’ into all of the cracked legs and dig out the crab flesh - add this retrieved flesh/meat to the plate of body meat that you’ve already sourced, and you’ll have enough crab meat to: put on crackers; make a sandwich; and/or, use in a recipe.
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