How do you freeze soft-shell blue crab? Will they still be okay to eat/cook since they weren't previously cooked?Crab-O-Licious.com Replies-With PSP and ASP (Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning/Amnesic Shellfish Poisoning) in mind, to be on the safe side, we do not side with any method to freezing crabs before cooking and cleaning them. by Dana You can also boil the crab for 1 minute to kill it. With this all said, Congradulations! When a crab dies, whether by being frozen live or by lack of oxygen (too much time between catching and cooking) it releases toxins which permeate all the meat in its body therefore rendering it unfit for consumption. Cook 'em! Either way will work just fine. Boil 10-12 minutes, shut off fire, let soak. If you throw the crab in the freezer it will keep even longer. by Tina Pretty much like with Dungeness, but with Blue Crabs even in soft shell stage, you will still want to steam them first. This piece of shell is known as the "apron." Whether you catch the crabs yourself or buy them at your local fishmonger, you'll need to clean them thoroughly before cooking and eating. When they die, toxins are released into their whole body which makes them unfit to eat. That's just like catching a fish and putting it in a trash bag and putting it in the freezer! Whether it be Blue Crab, Dungeness Crab, Red Rock or what-have-you, as long as they are cleaned FIRST, you can freeze them raw for Enjoy!-ing later. It happens to all of us! Got home to Austin on Monday afternoon and put it in a frig that runs about 34 degrees. Crabs breathe air and if they are kept in a bucket, cooler, or anything else where they are submerged, the crabs will take up all the oxygen in the water and die. The only safe place to keep them in water is in a holding cage in the body of water where they were caught, attached to a pier or the side of your boat. It was late and I was tired coming in from fishing and I had thrown in some ice to cool the crabs. With your fingers, peel off the gills. It is not recommended to freeze live crabs to be cooked at a later time due to the risk of deadly toxins setting in the meat. Do you have to cook them? In order to freeze whole crab (in the shell) it must be cooked first. Enjoy! What has happened? We freeze both whole crab and just legs/knuckles this way... (legs/knuckles take up less space) I suggest that you get a decent vaccuum sealer if you don't have one aleady and you, too, can ENJOY! The other option for live live crab is to clean them "live" and freeze them for later Enjoy!-ing. Katie, if those crabs are bad, you will know. With this said, a layer of ice should be placed on the bottom of the ice chest, followed by wet burlap, and then the crabs. Is it still ok to boil them the next morning with out poisoning myself? They boxed it in dry ice for us. When live blue crabs are to be transported and stored, they should always be paced belly down and back up. At the end of a crabbing season, we like to have a little bit of everything handy in the freezer...whole crabs, bags of just crab legs, and bags of just crab meat. Will they stay as fresh as if I cooked them right away? This helps keep the legs on when you throw them in the boiling water. Then you can package the crabs and freeze them. (Maple Valley, WA). It "could be" in how and how long you are boiling the crabs. This happens to us, too. Also, you can pour some water over the crabs and soak the burlap sack in water throughout the day and keep it on top of the crabs to keep them cool, calm, shaded and happy. them. "Catch 'em! Another layer of wet burlap is spread on top of the crabs and more ice is added.Blue Crab packed this way can be held alive for as long as 2 days. When freezing crab whole, do you pot (clean) the crab first or after thawing them out to eat?Jimmy CsutorasCrab-O-Licious.com Replies-BOTH! We highly recommend the above book we commented from. )See our How to freeze crab page for helpful tips!Thanks for asking a good question and visiting Crab-O-Licious.com. After this process you are good to go to steaming them for dinner! Use the lid of your bushel basket if you do not have a cover on your boat. Pick up the crab (once it's been in the ice water for five minutes you can handle it without tongs) and place it on a cutting board with the rounded blue side of the shell facing up and the larger pincher claws facing away from you. by Mikel Jordan Clean 'em! To freeze it uncooked would be to kill it and as we stress here....Dead crab is BAD crab. Either way will work fine and also give you a chance to re-season them some if you like. Many of my friends who love eating crabs at the restaurants, don't know how to clean and cook the crab. You can, however, freeze fresh, uncooked crab (legs/knuckles) provided that you first clean the crab live. Anything higher, overnight, and outside, I hope you discarded the leftover crab! (Clearwater, FL). You will also need to remove the shell and guts as part of the cleaning process. We can NOT express enough that you really can't expect fresh and safe results with seafood for consumption if you do not process it properly and in a timely manner. Vacuum sealing whole crabs will last even longer. Using the tongs, pick up a crab and place it in the bucket of ice water. When you decide to have crab dinner, thaw the crabs out, (makes it easier to break them down when cleaning them if they aren't frozen), then clean the crab under cool running water. I got some whole blue crabs at Vallis covered in plasic. "Catch 'em! The way to avoid the loss of your hard work or hard earned money is to go ahead and take the time to boil them right away. by Sielna And, good luck on your future stone crab catches!Go back to Crab ChatDon't forget to check out some "Crab-O-licious" Crab Meat Recipes!Check out more about crab, go to Crab-O-Licious.com Homepage, How do I reheat whole crabs after storing in the refrigerator for 3 - 5 days?Crab-O-Licious.com Replies-It is quite simple. We appreciate your patronage! I don't think the problem of having tuff, chewy, dryed out, and tasteless crab is in the bags you are using. And that is only because at that one year's time, we ran out and needed to go out and stock back up!Properly processed and vacuumed packed crab could keep up to 18 months, maybe more.Any indicators that the crab IS bad would be is to smell them after they thaw. (Nova Scotia). (Austin, texas), We bought cooked dungeness crab in Seattle on Sunday. They know their Blue Crab and it's full of great information from catching them all the way to some very delicious recipe's you can try! For steaming portioned crab (just the legs) 10-12 minutes is plenty if they have already been boiled and cleaned.Again, it totally sounds like you know what you're doing, maybe you just over boiled the crabs this time. Please! Help me please..CzapCrab-O-Licious.com Replies-We would treat Jersey Blue Crab the same as any other type of crab. Enjoy! A Step-by-Step Guide to how to cook and clean live crab at home. Let me expound... freezing live crab will cause them to die and DEAD crab are BAD crab. An upside down crab will not live as long as a right side up crab...FYI! IF this really is not an option then you will need to clean your crab "live" first! // Leaf Group Lifestyle, The Blue Crab Archives: Clean Before You Cook, South Carolina Department of Natural Resources: Blue Crabs. Wondering if I can freeze them now or can wait till morning. Have frozen crab many times before with no problem. Cook 'em! Crab-O-Licious.com Replies-Unfortunately this is not possible unless you freeze the crab ...first. Using the same motion, peel off the two pieces of shell on either side of the apron. Then they can either be cleaned and frozen or they can be frozen whole and cleaned later when you intend to serve them!Either way, if it possible, we recommend vacuum sealing your to maintain their freshness for as long as possible. Can I clean and freeze blue crab and boil after freezing?Crab-O-Licious.com Replies-Yes you can. If the Dungeness Crabs are alive, some people will freeze them for about 20 minutes-MAX, only to kill them off before cooking them. Unless crabs are sluggish from being thoroughly chilled, they are most safely handled with metal or wooden tongs. I always recommend that one either: A) take the 20-30 minutes necessary to boil your crab and then freeze them (whole is fine as you can clean them later) or B) clean them live (not recommended for the squeamish) and freeze the raw crab for enjoyment later. the fruits of your labors year-round! Just pre-chill your crab as described above, follow the instructions from steps 3-9, then cook according to this step's directions. This is especially good news for those who are catching crab, recreational, and would like to fill their freezers. Copyright © 2012 CrabTips.com, All Rights Reserved. We are often asked by the public and by chefs what our advice is on how to most humanely kill crustaceans before cooking them. In fact, that happens to one of our biggest recommendations, especially for people who don't always the time to boil them right away. Catch 'em! Ice the crabs live for a couple hours before you boil to make them dormant.