Claw Crab Meat

Claw crab meat is picked from the swimming fins of the crabs. Sometime it is considered to have a better flavor and texture than the body meat with brown to pinkish meat color instead of white and strong taste profile. This is an ideal meat for recipes with heavy dips, sauces, or soups as the strong flavor of the meat still coming through even after you mix them with other seasonings or ingredients. Claw meat is the cheap alternative for lump or back fin crab meats and although they are cheaper, they offer incredible appearance and flavor.

Declawing of crabs is often used by the seafood industry to take both or just one claw of the crab from the ocean and then return them in the water. This is a way to keep the population of the crabs in healthy amount. Although some industry also like to just catch a whole crab and then processed them into many variety of crab products. The pincers of the crabs is their important weapon and the claws can regenerate when they are taken. This is why such declawing process can be done by the industry.

Less expensive claw crab meat
Claw crab meat is the best alternative when you want to eat less expensive crabs since they are the lowest crab product grades in the market. But, it does not mean they do not have good quality to be cooked as dishes. Many people prefer the claw meat of crab because it has great deal of texture and strong flavor profile. There are two types of claw meat products in the market which is:
-          Claw crab with pincers
-          Claw crab without pincers
You likely will find two varieties of claw crab meat products at supermarket or grocery stores. There are claws crabs with pincers and without pincers, the claw meat crab with pincers offered appealing appearance than the one without pincers which is good product to be used when you want to make some dish that focusing on the view. Although claw crab without pincers offer easier consumption since you do not need to remove the pincers during eat.

Wild caught and farmed claw meat crab
There are many species of crabs available in the world. They are harvested, processed, and sold in the market as crab products including the fresh and frozen claw crab meat. In the seafood industry, crab aquaculture is popular since the market demand for crab products increasing from year to year while wild caught crabs cannot meet all these large amount of consumption. This is why the companies selected claw meat crab from both wild caught and farmed crabs.
When buying claw meat crab, you should be able to tell whether the claw crabs are wild harvested or famed from the label on the cans or plastic bag. If the brands do not tell you where they sourced the claw crabs then you should move to another brand. It is important for the customer to be able to tell what claw crab they buy because farmed and wild caught claw crabs have different qualities in term of nutrition and risks. Yes, we talk about the mercury of farmed crabs.

How to buy claw crab meat in the market?
There is frozen and fresh claw crab meat in the market which you can buy and in addition of that product, you can also select pasteurized claw meat crab packed in cans. To buy claw meat crab, there are certain things you need to look for such as:
1.      More shell meaning lower price since it is a very intensive labor just to remove the shell from the crabs. Sometime when you buy claw meat crab, you can spot some of their shell still on and thus you should remove them before eating. That’s why the more shell meaning lower price because the more work you are willing to do at home, the cheaper the claw meat crab will be.
2.      If you buy fresh claw meat then you need to check and make sure that they smell fresh just like the ocean. They do not have off putting smell or they have stink odor which the sign that they are old claw meat crab. Furthermore, the claw meat crab should have nice brown to pinkish color with nice texture and no discoloration. When buying fresh claw meat, you should use them immediately at home in the day you buy them since fresh claw meat deteriorate quickly.

3.      Frozen claw crab meat is alternative for fresh claw meat and they are available year round plus easy to be found in big cities. The frozen claw crab packed in plastic bag or wrap. Make sure there is no ice burn when you buy this product and there are no signs of rotten claw meat. Store the frozen claw crab meat in the coldest part of the freezer and with proper store method, they can last for months but once you opened the package, they need to be used within 2 to 3 days since you buy them. Frozen claw meat crab should have hard frozen texture when you buy it because this is means they are proper stored and not previously thawed.

4.      Pasteurized claw crab meat
Pasteurized claw meat has longer shelf life than both fresh and frozen unpasteurized claw crab. The process of pasteurized meaning that the meat is cooked with high temperature or heat pressured so all the bacteria inside the meat killed. This process also allows the meat to have longer shelf life for 3 to 12 months. Pasteurized claw crab is economical alternative for fresh claw meat crab. Such product can be found easily at supermarket or grocery stores. The process of pasteurized claw meat has been popularly conducted by many claw crab meat suppliers.
Claw crab meat is healthy and delicious meat which is versatile since they can be cooked with almost all cooking methods. You can even eat pasteurized claw meat without further cooking since most of them sold as ready to be consumed crab product in the market.