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Whole crabs are sold live or cooked frozen. On sale there are also boiled-frozen claws, peeled phalanges, salad boiled-frozen meat plus, of course, canned food and crab sticks, which have nothing to do with crabs (only the name).
How to buy a whole live crab
Pros
Alive means fresh – there is no doubt about it. A live crab is a clean, ice-free weight and no surprises inside.
Cons
You will have to look for places where live crab is sold. In addition, the buyer will have to kill a living creature, and not everyone is capable of this. And not every home has a saucepan of the right size for boiling a whole crab. Peeling a whole crab produces a large percentage of waste. Live crab should be cooked as early as possible – practically on the day of purchase.
How to choose
You can say simply: choose the cutest crab. And you can still add specifics. Choose an active crab with a hard, clean shell with no visible damage, and best of all of a medium size. Avoid chasing a large crab, as the meat may be fibrous and not too tender. And with a little more trouble than mined meat.
There is an opinion that it is best to buy boy crabs – they are tastier and they have more meat with equal sizes. They are distinguished from girls by a small tail, tucked under the abdomen. But girls have fatter meat and may have caviar.
In any case, the crab should be heavy for its size and if you knock on the shell, the sound should be muffled.
How to buy whole boiled-frozen crab
Pros
If the terms and temperature conditions of storage were observed correctly, after purchase you will receive a finished product – fresh and juicy crab meat. Usually, crab is boiled on a ship, cooled in a container with sea water, and then frozen. Ice glaze or not, or it is insignificant, the so-called “technical”. The product itself looks very attractive and has a relatively low cost per kilogram of weight.
Cons
This is a slow-moving product, therefore, it is possible that the expiration dates are not met. With prolonged storage, freezing occurs, a large loss of moisture, which means that the meat may be dry, not juicy. The presence of polyphosphates in meat is possible. Gift wrapping is often included in the price of the product.
TIP: Thaw the crab thoroughly (whether it is whole or part of the seafood). Crab should only be thawed in the refrigerator. No microwave and hot water tricks will work for him. Improper defrosting can ruin crab meat! It can take 6-8 hours to defrost a whole crab.
How to choose
In a long-stored boiled-frozen crab, the color of the shell loses its brightness. Such a crab is unnaturally light due to moisture loss. If the crab was defrosted and “pumped” with water to make it heavier, it will become clear only when the house is defrosted again. Ask the seller to cut the phalanx – the meat must be full.
How to buy boiled-frozen crab limbs
Pros
A small percentage of waste compared to a whole crab. The ability to visually assess the quality of the meat.
Cons
It is difficult to determine the percentage of meat filling in the phalanges. The voids can be filled with ice. Since the limbs are quite long, such a product is inconvenient to store and transport.
How to choose
In the place where the limbs are attached to the cephalothorax, the meat should be light. In long-stored crab, it is gray and dry fibers may be visible. In this case, the chitinous shell loses its brightness, and due to the loss of moisture, weight decreases.
Ice glazing on boiled-frozen extremities should be minimal and should not lag behind light tapping. The weight of the product is simply bound to pleasantly surprise.
Ask the seller to break off the claw from the phalanx and defrost it in your hand, clenching it in a fist. The meat should be juicy and smell good. Dry claw – dry phalanges.
How to buy boiled-frozen peeled phalanges
Pros
Low percentage of waste. The ability to visually determine the quality of meat by color and volume. And a definite plus: with unit freezing, you can buy the required amount of crab meat.
Phalanges are appetizing, attractive in appearance and you can not be smart with them, but simply serve as an independent dish with a suitable sauce. The simplest and most excellent: a mixture of melted butter and a few drops of Tabasco sauce. Or you can just sprinkle the crab with lemon juice, but this is not for everybody.
Cons
The high cost of the product. With unit freezing, a large amount of ice glaze usually occurs (in some cases up to 50%). With block freezing, you will have to buy a kilogram or more of an expensive delicacy at once.
How to choose
Pay attention to the observance of the temperature regime (no excess glazing), shelf life and color saturation (ideal – red or deep pink). Size is also important, as the less expensive second phalanx is often passed off as the first.
How to buy frozen crab meat for salads
Pros
Zero waste of product that does not require extra careful handling. Great partial use opportunity: The frozen block of crab meat can be cut into pieces and used as needed. The product is convenient to store and transport.
Cons
It is impossible to visually determine the quality of the product and the ratio of meat to liquid in a frozen block. The taste also suffers – it becomes less pronounced.
How to choose
Even frozen, crab meat should smell like crab – pleasant and slightly sweet. To check the quality of the food before defrosting completely, remove the thin shavings from the edge of the briquette with a vegetable peeler. Warm it between your fingers and try it. It must be the same crab.
How to buy canned crab meat
Pros
The minimum amount of waste product, completely ready for use. With the expiration dates, too, everything is clear. The packaging is varied and you can choose the desired weight of the product.
Cons
The product cannot be stored for a long time after opening the can. It is very expensive: the larger the phalanx, the larger the volume of the can. When buying canned crab in an iron, not glass, jar, the buyer plays a guessing game with the store. It is better to buy products in glass and only from trusted manufacturers you trust.
How to choose
On natural canned crab food there is a valid GOST R 51488-99… It says that the assortment mark must be indicated on the bank – the crab cannot be identified by its name. Sign 430 (with the letter E – in the export version) denotes a natural “extra” crab, F – a natural premium crab (fancy), A – a natural first grade (a-grade) and 557 – a natural snow crab (“noodles” ).
Variety “Extra” is the meat of the first phalanx of a crab claw. The meat of crab limbs, not divided into segments (parts) or divided into segments (thick and thin meat, knee, neck, right claw and rosette) is used for the “Higher” variety. The meat of all types of crab legs, divided into segments, whole and broken, is characteristic of the “First” variety (such canned food is best used for making salads, julienne or minced meat).
Pay attention to the manufacturer: the closer he is to the place of possible catch of crabs, the better. The crab should be processed and preserved no more than 4 hours after it is removed from the trap. After that, the crab begins to deteriorate, which has a bad effect on the taste and further storage. Therefore, look for products manufactured on the coast of the Far East. Better in the Sea of Okhotsk, the Bering Sea or the Sea of Japan at a special floating plant.
After examining the contents, shake the jar – the phalanges should not disintegrate, and the brine should remain transparent.
Please note that usually after opening, a void is found in the center of the can. This is not a weight trick. Manufacturers specially lay the phalanxes in such a way as to visually increase the amount of crab meat in the jar.
If more than 3 weeks have passed since the production of canned food, white crystals most often appear in the jar -. Transparent crystals are formed in natural canned fish and are harmless to humans.
How to buy crab sticks
Pros
Low product price, availability and a large selection of manufacturers. Crab sticks do not have any icing, which means they are characterized by zero waste. They always have clear expiration dates. The product is loved by the people and is actively used for cooking salads.
Cons
This is not a crab. When buying, pay attention to the inscription:
How to choose
Crab sticks are chilled and frozen. When buying, you should pay attention to the location of shelves with goods in the store: chilled ones should be in refrigerated display cases, frozen ones – in refrigerated cabinets.
Roskontrol informs that detailed information on the manufacturer, composition, place and date of manufacture, shelf life and storage conditions must be printed on the packaging of crab sticks. If the sticks are sold without packaging, by weight, it is better to refuse to purchase.
If the composition in the first place is surimi or fish fillet, it means that the fish in it makes up most of the volume. Otherwise, most likely, soy protein was used in the preparation of crab sticks.
Crab sticks should be even, the same size, juicy and elastic. They can be painted only on one side, the color – from light pink to bright red. The main part of the stick is white. Gray color indicates that a large amount of flour was used in the production or sticks were made from low-value fish species. A color that is too bright indicates an excessive amount of dye.
Crab sticks Is a Japanese invention that is over 900 years old. It was the Japanese who first came up with the idea of grinding the fillets of oceanic cod fish into minced meat, and then rinsing it with plenty of water in order to free it from fat, blood and enzymes. The result is what the Japanese call “surimi”; an approximate translation of this word from Japanese is.
Surimi has a neutral taste and smell. The product can be easily combined with other ingredients to create a variety of seafood-like dishes. So, from the meat of cod fish imitations of crab meat, shrimp, squid rings are obtained. The Japanese call these dishes “kamaboko”.