Off-season crab ... fresh or frozen?

[tdichristopher]

I was just in San Francisco with my girlfriend for the first time, and our host sent us down to Fisherman's Wharf to try some crab and chowder. However, I realize now after doing some reading that we were there during the off-season. Do the restaurants and crab stands in the area simply serve frozen crab after the season ends? I've read the crab yields slow down as soon as January.

[OldTimer]

Live, dead, frozen or fresh, crabs out of season just don't taste right. Of course, if they are kept in a dirty tank for weeks at a time, they taste worse. Same with oysters. Some people don't seem to mind. Some just don't know any better.

[Robert Lauriston]

If they're live, they're in season. Unless you buy them off a boat, local crabs could easily have spent less time out of water than crabs flown in from Alaska.

[monku]

Crab stands on Fisherman's Wharf don't serve live crabs. I've watched and they're dead and unloading them from cardboard boxes.
I'd say the same for the restaurants unless you see them in live tanks.

[Ruth Lafler]

The fact that they're dead doesn't answer the question of whether they're frozen. As wolfe said, the Dungeness season extends through summer in Alaska, so getting fresh Dungeness is possible. If you have any questions, of course you can ask the vendor!

[monku]

Fresh crab to me is "live" crab.
I've been to Fisherman's Wharf--local crab season or not and the stall vendors are always using "dead" crab from a box and heating them in those kettles.
Frozen or refrigerated, dead crab aren't "fresh" in my book.
I know live crab can be had from Washington and Alaska when it's out of season in California.

[Civil Bear]

How odd. I assume the dead crabs were pre-cleaned, since unfrozed crabs would spoil in a heartbeat.

[monku]

If the shell hasn't been removed, it hasn't been cleaned.
Crabs you see on ice at the market haven't been cleaned.

[Civil Bear]

Crabs I see on ice at the market are pre-cooked.

[monku]

Yes, and they aren't cleaned.

[Civil Bear]

So when you speak of dead crabs being used at FW, are you talking about pre-cooked crabs?

[monku]

Yes, the crabs served at the stalls at Fisherman's Wharf are pre-cooked crabs they re-heat. A dead "uncooked" crab would spoil much faster than a cooked crab.

Only place I see dead uncooked crabs or lobsters are at Asian markets where the customer knows they're buying a dead crab at a big discount.

[wolfe]

The season ends here but not up north, so there is always some fresh. The tanks at Ranch 99 were full yesterday but the crab were listless.

[lmarie]

My husband bought a live crab at the 99 Ranch in Dublin a few weeks ago. I berated him for buying Dungeness out of season - but it steamed up big, succulent and delicious.

[wolfe]

No problem when they are fresh and lively, problematical when they have been in there a while. Sometimes the crabs seem light for their size and I wonder if this is due to the longer time in the tank before sale. Any thoughts on loss of muscle mass?

[twocents]

It's the loss of fat mass that really affects the flavor in the short term. By the time that you are losing muscle mass, you will have a very sad tasting crab indeed.

[Civil Bear]

I'm told live crabs don't after being caught, so the further they have travelled, the more listless they should be.

[Civil Bear]

Oops, I meant to say crabs "don't eat" after being caught. My understanding is they will lose mass because of this.