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How To Cook Crab Legs

If you would like to know how to cook crab legs, you've come to right place. Whether you are cooking king crab legs or cooking snow crab legs or cooking dungeness crab, it's basically the same technique.

You can cook live crab by steaming or boiling the crab. There are advantages to both methods. Steaming the crab produces a white and very "crabby-tasting" flesh and some of the body meat is lost when the crab is cut in half. Boiling the crab keeps all the meat in the shell, but many people claim that the crabs body juices can tinge the crab meat a yellowish color and make the crab meat a bit less sweet tasting.

Items You Will Need

Here's a few items you may want to have handy.

cooking-crab-steamer

  • Crab Steamer
  • Salt or Sea Salt-I prefer Morton's Sea Salt-coarse.
  • Crab Boil (Optional) We use Zatarain's Shrimp and Crab Boil. Use it sparingly, though, as it can over-take the crab flavor.
  • A Pair of Tongs

You can check out the Crab-O-Licious Store to find products that we use.

Got everything? Great! Now just follow these 3 simple steps...

Step One, take your crab steamer and fill with water just barely over and into the area with the holes. This allows some of the water to steam away and still have plenty left over to cook crab legs if they are frozen.
Step Two, add, approximately, 1/4 cup of the Sea Salt to every gallon of water you are using and the crab boil according to their directions as well, (remember not to go over board with the crab boil). You can add your favorite herbs and spices in the water, too. Cover with a lid and wait for the water to boil.
Step Three, once the water is boiling, you place the crab legs into the steamer. Cook crab through, steaming them for 15-20 minutes, till they are good and hot.

While eating a portion (half) of legs, it's okay to keep the other portions of crab steaming on the stove on simmer. This will keep them hot until you are ready for them. You can't over cook crab legs in a steamer.

Now you know how to cook crab legs.

You are ready for a "Crab-O-Licious" dinner. Try one of our delicious crab dip recipes, here, to dip those crab legs into. When you eat a lot of crab as we do, it's nice to have alternatives to melted butter for dipping the crab legs in.

Also, try one of our crab meat recipes if you find you have a lot of crab legs left over. You can pick out the meat and try a new crab recipe!

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Crab Facts:
To cook crab, you want to "steam" the crab. You don't want to boil crab and then eat them unless they are "whole live crab".

If you bought crabs legs at the store, they have been previously cooked, so you don't have to boil the crab legs. Boiling previously cooked crab will loosen the meat in the legs and give you "crab leg soup" instead of cooked crab legs.

To freeze crab, it needs to be boiled and then the crab needs cleaned. Check out more "Crab How To's" on the Crab-O-Licious Navigation bar on the left.

Check out Crab Chat for more helpful tips on freezing crab. If you have any questions or in need of any help with freezing or cooking crab, feel free to ask your questions and we'll answer them ASAP! to the best of our ability.


Note: This website is for your free information only. For medical advice, please, consult a healthcare professional.

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