Crabs on ice - HELP
Yesterday my son caught a few crabs on the coast, and brought them back in a cooler filled with ice. They were alive when he brought them back. They were kept outside, in the cooler over night, with ice, but this morning they appeared to be dead, even though they were still ice cold. I immediatly put them in freezer (as I was late for work). Did I do a good thing by freezing them, or are they no longer safe to eat? Thanks.
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The reason for not cooking a dead crab is that you have no idea how long it's been dead and they deteriorate very rapidly once they die.
When you put live crabs on ice, they more or less hibernate. That's why they appeared to be dead. If you had taken them off ice and let them warm up, they might well have started to move around again.
They are probably safe since they were well iced and then frozen.
You can cook them and then open them. You should be able to see immediately if the crabmeat has deteriorated. The gills (dead men) in the crab will be dried, dark, and spongy and the meat will be very flaccid.
We eat crabs frequently and often will open a crab that had been dead or dying when it hit the pot. You can tell right away that it was bad. No doubt in your mind. PItch it.
The bigger problem is that the raw crab has been frozen which will have caused it to lose quality. If the crabmeat is OK but of poor texture, you can use them for gumbo crabs.Never put crabs in fresh water. They live in either salt or brackish water and the fresh water will kill them.
Icing crabs won't hurt them as long as they don't sink into the water from melted ice. We often do it if we have to keep them for a few days. It also works to keep blue crabs from "throwing claws" when you steam or boil them.›1 Reply-
re: MakingSense
I have to agree and disagree with your post. I would never buy a dead crab or lobster, for the reasons mentioned above. I do, however, purge crabs ,(Texas Gulf blue crabs,) in fresh water and have been doing it for years. I have caught, while fishing with minnows, blue crabs ninety miles from the Gulf of Mexico below the Lake Livingston dam. Purging can be done with fresh or salt water, I prefer fresh, but the crabs will asphyxiate, die from lack of oxygen, if the water is not turned over every five minutes or so.
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When I was in high school, many years ago, I worked in the Deli of a local supermarket that had a typical supermarket lobster tank. One of the jobs of whoever opened up in the morning was to check the lobster tank for ones that died overnight. They were promptly removed, cooked, and picked - that's where the lobster meat that sold for $30 a pound, or whatever it was at the time, came from. I don't recall ever getting any complaints, and we had a lot of long-term regular customers, so apparently they weren't dying off either. I have to believe this was/is a fairly common practice.
Now please understand I'm not recommending to anyone that they cook and eat freshly dead crustaceans, only pointing out that it's apparently not a death sentence either.
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raytamsgv
Oct 15, 2008 04:57 PM
Try putting water in the cooler next time instead of ice.
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re: raytamsgv
I only have eperience with blue crabs but here goes. Dead crabs are bad,bad. Bacteria grows rapidly in them. I would avoid keeping them overnight, but it can be done. I would not keep them in water, they use up all the oxygen and asphyxiate. The seafood markets keep them in a wooden crate, with some openings on the side so they can breath, in a cool dark place, covered with moist burlap. I've seen one crawling around in the back of a pick-up the morning after beeing caught. They're pretty hardy if handled properly.
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