To Know 1 Crab Is Not To Know All

May 15, 1986|By Patricia Tennison.

A soft-shelled crab is generally a blue crab; a blue crab turns red when cooked but a red crab is red from the start; and a snow crab is really a spider crab. It`s a hard business, sorting out crabs.

To make it easier, here`s a partial list of the types of crabs you may find at your fish supplier or local restaurant. The information comes from the Encyclopedia of Fish Cookery, by A.J. McClane (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1977; $50).

Blue crab: Best known among seafood lovers, the oval shell is dark-blue or blue-green but turns pinkish red when cooked. Its last pair of legs are flattened into paddles for swimming. This common species is found primarily in the Atlantic from Cape Cod to Florida, in the Bahamas and the Gulf of Mexico. The warm weather season can start as early as February in Florida. It yields solid chunks of white meat from the body, as well as meat picked from the claws.

Blue crab, soft shell: All crabs shed their shells as they grow, but the proportion of meat and the size of the blue crab make it particularly desirable for eating, soft shell and all.

Dungeness crab: The heavy-shelled body is pinkish green and yellow before cooking, bright red afterwards. Most popular of the western crabs, it`s found from Alaska to Baja California. It`s typically 2 to 4 pounds, with about 25 percent edible meat.

King crab: Generally 10 pounds, this huge crab can reach 20 pounds in the cold waters of the northern Pacific. Frozen king crab legs previously cooked in the shell are the principal market item. Peak season is midwinter off the coast of Alaska. It`s also known as Japanese crab, Russian crab and Alaskan king crab.

Red crab: A walking crab with a square body and long, slender legs, it grows to about 2 1/2 pounds and lives deep in the ocean. It`s bright red even when uncooked and yields pink-tinged meat similar in taste and appearance to Alaskan king crab, except the legs and claws aren`t as large.

Snow crab: A market name for various spider crabs, also called the Atlantic snow crab and queen crab.

Spider crab: The common name for a number of crabs with typically long legs and bodies covered with a dense growth of hair, which makes them resemble spiders. The Japanese spider crab grows to 13 feet across the legs. It`s sold under names such as snow crab, tanner crab and queen crab.

Stone crab: Harvested mainly in southern Florida and the Carolinas, the crab is a burrower, found in deep mud holes or under rocks near creeks. The characteristic black-tipped, hard, heavy claws have rich, sweet meat and are generally marketed cooked and chilled or frozen.