Go Back
–+ servings
A dressed crab of white crab meat in the middle and the brown crab meat on the sides with dill on top, two legs on the sides and a wedge of lemon served with seafood like mussels, prawns and caviar
Print
5 from 46 votes

Dressed Crab (How to Dress a Cooked Crab)

Dressed crab is a popular dish in the UK, and it's not hard to see why.
Crab meat is succulent and flavourful, and when dressed and seasoned with salt, pepper and lemon, it makes for a delicious seafood treat.
We'll teach you how to dress a crab.
Follow the instructions on how to break it open and extract the white and brown meat, as well as how to present the crab meat back into the cleaned shell.
We'll also provide some tips on where to buy and how to choose a cooked crab in the blog post.
Prep Time20 minutes
Active Time0 minutes
0 minutes
Total Time20 minutes
Course: Appetizer, Christmas, Lunch, Starter
Cuisine: British, European
Keyword: brown crab, Cancer Pagurus, cornish crab, cromer crab, dressing a crab, edible crab, how to dress a crab, what to do with cooked crab, whole cooked crab
Yield: 2 people
Calories: 199kcal
Author: Luke and Kay - Flawless Food

Equipment

Ingredients

  • 1 Whole Cooked Crab
  • 1 Lemon cut in ½ for juices, save other ½ for wedges
  • Pinch Salt and Black Pepper

Optional

  • Dill to garnish
  • Mayonnaise

Instructions

  • The instructions for this dressed crab are for a pre cooked whole crab.
    If you buy your cooked crab frozen, always defrost it in the fridge overnight before preparing it.
    Rinse the crab in cold water before starting.
    A cooked brown crab on a wooden chopping board
  • Remove crabs legs by holding the bottom leg socket and snapping them backwards away from the crab.
    1 Whole Cooked Crab
    Removing crab legs away from the body of the crab by hand
  • Do the same with the Claws.
    Pulling the claw away form the body of the cooked crab by hand
  • Keep legs and claws to one side
    crabs body, crabs legs and the crab claws all on a wooden board
  • Pull back to remove the abdomen off the crab's body
    Removing the male crabs abdomen from the body
  • Place your fingers on the underside of the shell and use your thumbs to push up against the crab shell and the body will detach.
    Pushing up the body with thumbs to remove from the crab shell
  • Remove the gills (aka dead man's fingers or lungs) from inside the shell or they may be on the body. Also, remove the stomach sack.
    These are bitter and not tasty at all, throw them away.
    Image of a male crab with indicators showing the gills, stomach sac and mouth of a crab
  • Remove the crab's mouth by pushing it down hard until it cracks.
    Pushing at the mouth with fingers to remove from the shell of the crab
  • Scrape the brown meat from the shell and around the body into a bowl.
    Cut the body in half with a sharp knife. Remove brown meat from the inside of the body.
    Cutting the abdomen of the crab with a knife on a chopping board
  • Once you have removed all the brown meat, start a new bowl for the white meat.
    Use a pick to remove the hidden white meat from the inside of the body.
    Scraping out brown meat of the body of the crab with a pick
  • Remove the white meat from the legs, simply crack and pull, you can also use pick.
    Flake it as you go, making sure you remove any cartilage or shell.
    Keep 2 of the thin legs to use as decoration on the dressed crab.
    Removing the white meat from the crab legs by hands
  • Use the back of a knife to crack the crab's claws.
    Cracking the crab claw with the back of the knife on a chopping board
  • Remove the meat from inside the claw.
    Removing the white meat from the crab claw by hands
  • Break the claw meat up as there will be hard white cartilage inside which needs to be removed.
    Removing the white meat from the crab cartilage from the claw by hands
  • You should now have two separate bowls. One with white meat and one with dark meat.
    Season to your taste with lemon juice, salt and pepper. You can add mayonnaise or other herbs if you like.
    1 Lemon , Pinch Salt and Black Pepper, Mayonnaise
    White crab meat in one bowl and brown meat in another bowl on a wooden chopping board

Dressing the crab

  • Clean out the shell
    Washing out the empty crab shell with water in a bowl
  • Use a spoon to remove the outer shell, follow the line around the shell, pushing up until it snaps.
    Breaking the shell around line with the back of a spoon
  • Push the brown meat into either side of the shell.
    Placing the brown meat into the empty crab shell with a spoon
  • Add the flakes of white meat in the middle between the brown meat.
    White crab meat in a empty crab shell on a wooden board
  • Finish with the lower leg joints you saved earlier and garnish with some dill.
    Dill
    White crab meat in the middle of a empty crab shell with brown meat on the sides on a wooden board with two crab legs placed on top
  • Keep it chilled until serving.
    White crab meat in the middle of a empty crab shell with brown meat on the sides on a wooden board with two crab legs placed on top served on a bed of ice
  • Wonderful served with as part of a Seafood Platter.
    Dressed crab with two crabs legs on the side and some fresh dill on top served with a seafood platter consisting of langoustines, crevettes, king prawns, mussels, smoked salmon, cockles crayfish tails,caviar and anchovy wrapped olives all on a bed of ice

Video

Nutrition

Calories: 199kcal | Carbohydrates: 10g | Protein: 38g | Fat: 2g | Saturated Fat: 0.2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.2g | Cholesterol: 84mg | Sodium: 1674mg | Potassium: 557mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 72IU | Vitamin C: 71mg | Calcium: 120mg | Iron: 2mg