Cleaning and Picking Meat from a Crab: How to Pick Crabs

Opening the Body

Open the body

Holly A. Heyser

Now it's time to open the body. Wedge your thumbs on opposite sides of the body as shown, then pull the top of the crab away from the bottom of the crab.

There will be all sorts of icky-looking stuff in there. Start cleaning it by grabbing the front end of the crab and pinching away the whole thing.

• Getting Started
• Pick off the Legs
• Peeling off the Plate
• Opening the Body
• Remove the Lungs
• Getting to the Body Meat
• Extracting the Body Meat
• Starting on the Claws
• Picking Meat from the Legs
• Finishing Up with the Nut Cracker