Cooking King Crab legs.

Cafe Society
1

The set up – My Wife and I go camping on 40 acres we own every anniversary.

My Wife loves King Crab. I would like to surprise her, and cook King Crab legs on our little get away. I can’t stand bug-o-the sea, so I’ll have something else. We just cook over an open fire. We have a grill to put on it for pots, pans.

Now, I know it’s insanely easy to boil crab legs I do it pretty often, and I could (and probably should) just get a heavy duty pot and stick it right in the fire.

But, is there another way to cook these little beasts? Could I cut them in shorter segments and fry them in an insane amount of butter? That sorta seems like it would be good, but since I don’t like them in the first place, I’m probably not a very good judge.

2

Well, chances are the legs are already cooked. It’s just a matter of reheating them. In addition to boiling, you could steam or bake them. I’m not sure about frying because I think it would be too easy to overcook them with the high heat, but there’s no reason you couldn’t if you were careful.

3

The frozen, buy them buy the pound, still in the shell, Crab legs are pre-cooked?

Steaming is out, as is bakeing.

I thought I could sautee them in butter with a low heat.

4

Almost always. I suppose you could find uncooked ones, but I’ve never seen it.

That could be good. Add a bit of garlic, too. Just remember you probably aren’t cooking, just reheating.

5

hmm,

The more I think about it, the more I think I’m going to go with a traditional boiling method. Actually, I might try steaming them. That’s what we do at home (I said boil in my first post, but actually, we have an electric steamer).

Sautee ‘ing’ them in butter would be a real mess. They’re tough enough to shell as it is. Don’t want to add in a ‘slippery factor’.

I have plenty of pots, and a steamer basket, I’m just not sure I want to possibly ruin a good pot over a fire. I think I’ll go buy a cheapo pot and use the basket in it. That would be a good way to keep the crab legs warm too. It would also be a good way to melt butter in a Tupperware container. Just set it on top of the crab legs in the steamer.

Now I need a side dish. We usually do asparagus. Hmmm. Something else that needs to be steamed. But it would be easy to eat, camping wise .

And I need to have something. Perhaps a bratwurst. Easy enough, all I’ll need is a pointy stick.

Now, on to breakfast…… My Wife loves ‘Veggie’s and eggs’ that’s easy enough. Broccoli, onions red pepper, mushrooms, and a bit of cheese. I can pre-make all of that and have it cooked up in a jiffy. Maybe some little sausages on the side.

6

Asparagus is wonderful grilled. Brush them with italian dressing or butter & salt and throw 'em on the grill until they’re done. This works best with the big thick asparagus - the thin ones tend to overcook fast and slip through the grill grates.

7

Agreed. It’s the only way I can eat the damn stuff.

8

I’ve been out of the fishing industry for 25 years, but as I recall from the publications of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Association, King and Tanner crab must be cooked alive because there is a fluid in the system which, when the crab dies crystalizes into a glass like deposit leading to customers complaining of glass in the product. Raw King crab is grey. Cooked King Crab is White. Essentially you are re-heating cooked King or Tanner crab, so you can do just about anything with it.

If you have ever had fresh cooked KIng Crab, it is unbelievably sweet and delicious. The frozen stuff is as tasteless as rubber bands by comparison, hence the sauces etc.

Don’t know if you can even get raw King Crab and don’t know the health hazards.

There must be some Bering Sea crabbers out there to give us the straight dope. They are not all illiterate knuckledraggers.