# Tiny little crabs in a Spanish fish market - how are they used? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 23, 2007, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-little-crabs-in-a-spanish-fish-market-how-are-they-used/405202 "2007-05-23T10:57:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2007, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-little-crabs-in-a-spanish-fish-market-how-are-they-used/405202/1 "2007-05-23T10:57:22Z")
Further to [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=415502&highlight=anguilas) thread (in which I ate baby eels), I’m thinking of another thing I saw for sale on a fish counter in a market in Spain. Tiny little crabs. A couple of different species (in separate boxes), but small - smaller than, say, an oreo cookie. They were conspicuously _not_ like regular crabs though - not the cornish-pastie-body-shape of the common edible crab - the body was more spherical and the legs were really spindly. They were dark and fairly glossy in colour - the legs were reddish - they were alive at point of sale. Did I mention they were small? There can’t have been any worthwhile meat in the spindly little legs - even the claws were skinny. So what are they used for? Stock or soup? ---
**Author:** ![MonkeyMule](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc348/32.png) [@MonkeyMule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MonkeyMule)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2007, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-little-crabs-in-a-spanish-fish-market-how-are-they-used/405202/2 "2007-05-23T11:05:36Z")
tiny little crabs you say? Don’t they have a soap for that? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2007, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-little-crabs-in-a-spanish-fish-market-how-are-they-used/405202/3 "2007-05-23T11:08:57Z")
Not Spanish cuisine, but it might give you a clue. I was at a Thai party and saw the same little crabs (though not alive). A woman took some chili pepper lookalikes, some other ingredients I don’t particularly remember, and a bunch of the (raw and whole, shells and all) crabs, put it all into a mortar, smashed it into a paste, and served it with rice. No, I didn’t try it. ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2007, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-little-crabs-in-a-spanish-fish-market-how-are-they-used/405202/4 "2007-05-23T12:35:16Z")
This is pure speculation, but were they freshly molted, a la east coast soft shell crabs? If they are, then fry ‘em up in some olive oil and toss them into a po’ boy torta (are they only in Mexico, or Spain also?). Or throw them into some paella. Otherwise, I got nothin’. I hope they are the same species as those damn invasive worthless European Green Crab that are overtaking native crab stock here on the west coast. Send me the recipe and I’ll start eating them. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2007, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-little-crabs-in-a-spanish-fish-market-how-are-they-used/405202/5 "2007-05-23T13:06:48Z")
[QUOTE=Darryl Lict] This is pure speculation, but were they freshly molted, a la east coast soft shell crabs? [/QUOTE] One lot may have been - they looked a bit like swimming crabs and were fairly pale, but the other ones - the dark ones with red legs - I would say not at all - I saw someone buying them and they made a very hard-sounding clatter as they went into the scales. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2007, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-little-crabs-in-a-spanish-fish-market-how-are-they-used/405202/6 "2007-05-23T13:08:23Z")
On the subject of soft shell crabs… do you eat the whole lot? What about the ‘dead men’s fingers’ (that’s the gills, isn’t it?), which seem to be a serious concern when eating larger crabs. ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2007, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-little-crabs-in-a-spanish-fish-market-how-are-they-used/405202/7 "2007-05-23T13:50:02Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout] On the subject of soft shell crabs… do you eat the whole lot? What about the ‘dead men’s fingers’ (that’s the gills, isn’t it?), which seem to be a serious concern when eating larger crabs. [/QUOTE] The ones I’ve had you eat the whole damn thing as far as I can tell. Perhaps there is some preprocessing going on that I am unaware of. I await the expertise of an east coaster. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2007, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-little-crabs-in-a-spanish-fish-market-how-are-they-used/405202/8 "2007-05-23T13:55:14Z")
Also, how the hell do they catch them all at the exact point of moulting? ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2007, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-little-crabs-in-a-spanish-fish-market-how-are-they-used/405202/9 "2007-05-23T15:13:23Z")
Sneak up behind 'em, yell boo, get scared and shell pops off, harvest. Piece of cake. ---
**Author:** ![athelas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@athelas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/athelas)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2007, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-little-crabs-in-a-spanish-fish-market-how-are-they-used/405202/10 "2007-05-23T15:15:34Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout] Also, how the hell do they catch them all at the exact point of moulting? [/QUOTE] They catch them, and some are soft-shell and some are hard-shell. Both sell, though for different purposes. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2007, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-little-crabs-in-a-spanish-fish-market-how-are-they-used/405202/11 "2007-05-23T16:28:48Z")
I found some information about [Spanish seafood](http://spanishfood.about.com/od/cookingtipsandbasics/a/spanishseafood.htm). They might have been Nécora. > [@](#): > > Blue Crab or Nécora > This little crab never gets much bigger than 4 inches long, is hard to crack open and has little meat, but is very tasty! It has a blue hue and it seems to be covered in velvet. It is a popular crab in Galicia and is often simply boiled in sea water with a bay leaf. ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2007, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-little-crabs-in-a-spanish-fish-market-how-are-they-used/405202/12 "2007-05-23T21:07:11Z")
[QUOTE=devilsknew] I found some information about [Spanish seafood](http://spanishfood.about.com/od/cookingtipsandbasics/a/spanishseafood.htm). They might have been Nécora. [/QUOTE] I can’t imagine cracking open a tiny crab to extract it’s meat. I bought a bunch of rock crab, and they have about 1/4 the meat of an equivalent Dungeness. I am a huge crab fan, but no way am I going to digging into tiny crabs no matter how tasty they are. But **Mangetout** says that they are the size of an Oreo cookie, so you definitely ain’t cracking that puppy open. And according to [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft-shell_crab) fisherman set aside the crabs that are just starting to molt to be sold eventually as soft shell crabs. I guess that’s what **athelas** said. ---
**Author:** ![Operation\_Ripper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/34f0e0/32.png) [@Operation\_Ripper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Operation_Ripper)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2007, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-little-crabs-in-a-spanish-fish-market-how-are-they-used/405202/13 "2007-05-24T01:42:22Z")
[QUOTE=Darryl Lict] The ones I’ve had you eat the whole damn thing as far as I can tell. Perhaps there is some preprocessing going on that I am unaware of. I await the expertise of an east coaster. [/QUOTE] Take off the dead man’s fingers, eyes and sex organ shell thing on the bottom (if I remember correctly) and fry and eat everything else.