30/06/2025
Tip of the Day: Stop boiling your seafood, all of it!!
So you got that big ass pot of water on the stove full of Old Bay and lemons now you’re ready to show out huh. Well, before I dive into this let’s start with the basics.
All seafood that is still whole and in tact should be cleaned before cooking. Crab legs tend to be dirty ass hell and so often I see folks take crab legs straight out the pack and drop directly into a pot of water. This is gross and it also will have your crab legs tasting super fishy considering the fact that you just marinated them in dirty bath water. All of the live creatures and parasites that attached to the shell of the crab are now a main ingredient and in the mix with the rest of your desirables. I can tell by the smell of someones house during preparation if they’ve cleaned their seafood or not. That boiling bath water will have your house smelling like an aquarium, mmkay!
Now to clean your crab (or any shell fish) you can simply grab a spoon, flip it over, and rub up and down the shell. As you do this you will quickly notice what you thought was the normal shell discoloration is actually slime and grime. Watch as the underside of the crab goes from a tan, brownish color to white and ready. Also make sure to remove the dark greenish mush from the cluster of the legs. What many people believe to be crab boo boo is actually its organ called hepatopancreas, basically the liver and pancreas and though it is considered to be a delicatessen somewhere I want no parts of it. After you’ve done this rinse the crab legs in warm water and you now have clean crab ready to go.
First thing we are going to do after cleaning our crab is pour out all that damn water and never consider this as an option again. Cooking your crab legs in the oven will not only save you considerable time it will change your whole experience. When crab is boiled it’s very easy to overcook especially because all crab has already been cooked by the time it reaches the consumer, hence the orange color that is only present after cooking.
Overcooked crab will present as super soft shells and the inability to pull whole pieces out once cracked. If your crabmeat presents shredded then you’ve boiled it to high hell and you just have to keep pulling off those little strings of meat until you’re either full or tired of fighting with it. When the shell of the crab remains dry during cooking then the shell will remain hard and the heat will cause the meat inside to detach from the shell and remain whole and in tact so once you crack it bowww, just long meat dangling, now you’re all excited!
So the simple instructions are preheat your oven to 375, place your crab legs on a flat cookie sheet, put butter on the clusters, lightly season with Complete and whatever other seasonings you desire. You do not want to over season or go crazy like you would if you were boiling it, crab is naturally salty and when cooked in a dry state all the extra seasoning will remain. Pop it in the oven for 15 minutes and that’s it, now the last step is to come back to this post after you’ve ate and thank me for the game changer! 😉