Boiling Crabs for the first time. Any tips?

Overseaon ur water. I only boil them n my crawfish rig, but depending on how many u wanna do - ur 20 qt should be fine. Just gotta boil more times if cookin a bunch

Love me a good crab boil.

Apparently some girl is bringing 10 dozen of them to my house tomorrow

I don't know how the hell I'm going to have the patience to boil that many

Give them an ice bath first. Place them face down when you boil. Over season your water.

Also ice em down for a little while before boiling to prevent the claws from falling off

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Give them an ice bath first. Place them face down when you boil.

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This must not always work. I witnessed a couple week ago cold iced crabs going into a boil and the claws still came off.

Doesn't help if you put them in the cold water and then bring the boil up with them already in the water?

You will definitely need the big rig for that many as that is a buttload of crabs. Depending on the size of the pot will determine the number of batches needed. The spice levels need to be higher than for crawfish because of density difference between them. To keep the seasoning in leftover crabs store them upside down, the juices are held in by the shell

Go for a 100 qt pot and a double jet boiler(there is a thread somewhere below about someones expenditure below here). You can cut down the amount of water in a big pot for smaller boils when appropriate, but you can't get a pot stretcher when you want one.

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Doesn't help if you put them in the cold water and then bring the boil up with them already in the water?

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This is how I've always seen it done.

For that many crabs I would steam them.

Boil a pot of water with all your seasoning in it. Once it comes to a roiling boil and seasoning mixed up real good remove pot and set aside.

Next, in another pot steam your crabs. Once steamed let soak in the pot with your seasoning. Add seasoning and reheat seasoning pot as needed.

Boiling is fine. To answer some of your questions...

You'll probably spend $200-$250 on a double jet burner and a decent 100 qt pot. If this is a one-time thing, I'd look into borrowing one.

Ice the crabs before boiling. Put a thin layer of ice in an ice chest, place a layer of crabs, another thin layer of ice, and so on. Open the plug on the ice chest and prop it up so it drains. The crabs will go dormant and won't throw their claws when you drop them. If someone is delivering 10 dozen crabs, I wouldn't be surprised if they are already iced.

Season your water like you would for crawfish, but I would double the liquid boil. I follow the same rule of thumb for all boiled seafood...boil until they float and soak until they sink. Crabs should float after boiling 5-8 minutes.