Cleaning, cracking and cooking Dungeness crab is not a difficult thing to do. Let me show you how.

Dungeness crab is one of the most meaty crabs available. The meat-to-shell ratio of a Dungeness is approximately 25%. An average 2 pound crab yields about 1/2 pound of meat. Not bad, huh? The Oregon Dungeness has a sweet and delicate flavor to it. The body meat is white and flaky, while the leg meat is firm and white with pinkish tones to it.

Cooking Dungeness Crab

If you can boil water, cooking Dungeness crab will be easy for you. Fill a pot with salted water and bring it to a boil. Place the whole crab into it and, after it begins to reboil, let it cook for about 18-20 minutes. The crab will turn a bright orange color when it is done. Run it under cold water to cool before cleaning.

Cleaning Dungeness Crab

Keep your crab refrigerated until ready to eat.

• Remove the crab's back.
  
  
  
• Hold the base of your crab with one hand, place your thumb under it's shell at mid-point, and pull off the shell.
  
  
  
• Hold the base of crab with one hand, place your thumb under the shell at mid-point, and pull off it off. The leaf-like gills are now exposed. Gently scrape them away with your thumb or the edge of a spoon.
  
  
  
• Wash away the "crab butter" (viscera) under a heavy stream of cold water.

Cracking Dungeness Crab

After cooking Dungeness crab, eating it straight from the shell is fun and oh-so yummy.

• Twist off each leg (including the two large legs with claws) where they join the body. Break off the small pincer and discard.
  
  
  
• Break the large claws in two at the dotted line, and crack with a nut cracker. Or place on a cutting board and give a light whack with a mallet or small hammer. Most Dungeness Crab connoisseurs consider this the best meat in the entire crab. You may wish to nibble as you go, dipping your crab meat in drawn butter or cocktail sauce, or squeeze on a spritz of fresh lemon juice.
  
  
  
• Crack the next two joints of the largest legs with a nutcracker or mallet, and remove it's juicy, succulent meat. It's perfectly acceptable - if you're carried away with the proper amount of adventure - to suck meat out of the shell, as if using a straw. Or if you feel timid, use a nut pick or cocktail fork to remove.
  
  
  
• Repeat the cracking procedure on the top two joints of rest of legs. Don't miss a single piece of flavorful meat.
  
  
  
• Smaller joints of legs can be snapped with your fingers and the meat either sucked out or removed with a pick or fork.
  
  
  
• Grasp the main body of crab with two hands and firmly snap in two. Place each section on a cutting board and strike with a mallet to break the small "bones" and loosen the meat. Or, the more flamboyant and independent crackers may simply use their fingers to separate and remove meat. A pick or cocktail fork comes in handy, too.

If you plan to save the now-ready crab for later, be sure to cover it and keep it refrigerated until you're ready. If you are going to keep it longer than two or three days, pack it in a moisture and vapor proof container (a glass jar is perfect). Crumple plastic wrap or lightweight foil and place in the top of the container to exclude all air. Cap the container tightly and freeze.

That's all there is to cleaning, cracking and cooking Dungeness crab. Not too hard, right? ;)

Serving Dungeness Crab

Dungeness crab is wonderful when used in a wide-variety of dishes. The flavor adds a whole new dimension to them. Another very popular way of enjoying the crab is to eat it cold or warm with drawn butter and/or cocktail sauce. For more terrific ways to enjoy it, don't miss my Dungeness Crab Recipes page.

I would like to thank the Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission for some of this terrific information on cleaning and cooking Dungeness crab.

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