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Food Info - Fish/Seafood: Soft Shell Crab Cleaning/Preparation

Source of Recipe

Cooks Magazine, June 1990
The best soft-shell crabs are the females. They are plumper and meatier. The tips of the female crab's claws are redder than the male's claws. The male soft-shell has a long, tapered belly flap. Turn the soft-shell crab under side up, and use a small knife to lift up its tail-like apron (like a breastbone.) Remove and discard apron. Lift the shell on each side of the soft-shell crab. Then, using a small knife, remove and discard the crab's gills. Using kitchen shears, snip across the soft-shell crab's "face"; remove and discard the eyes and mouth. Lift the "shell" where the crab's eyes and mouth were. Then, using a small spoon, scoop out and discard the crab's innards.

NOTES : Soft-shell crabs are crabs in a molting process. They have shed their shells and begin to grow new ones within two hours. So they are harvested with great vigilance, as quickly as possible. They are usually stored in wet seaweed and shipped by air.