Cleaning lump crab meat

“Lump” crab meat only comes from
The flipper. There is no “picking” involved, as the meat comes out in a big lump, hence the name.

To answer your question, I don’t know. I remember there was a guy in a thread many years ago that claimed to have some amazing method for picking crabs but he never explained it. For me? I remove the top shell and break the body in half. Remove the flipper to get the lump meat. Then I sort of pinch and crack the body just inside where the legs meet the body to loosen up that portion of shell. Next, I pull the legs off carefully in hopes that the meat on the end comes with it and eat that. Next, I split the remaining portion in half, dividing the top and bottom and pick through the channels to get the meat out.

Everything but the lump is a pain in the arse. I love crab meat, maybe more than crawfish, but I will take the ease of peeling and eating crawfish all day over picking and eating crabs.

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Is there a secret to cleaning the shells out of crab meat? I sit there and pick through it all and it’s a pain in the arse and ineviteably there are still some shells that people almost choke on. Am I unrealistic to think that a $50 container of lump crab meat should have less shells in it?

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It’s one pint of crabmeat. Picking through it is part of using the ingredient, not an unreasonable ask.

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I remove the top shell and break the body in half.

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He’s not talking about picking blue crabs. He’s talking about packaged lump crab.