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Velvet crabs

post #1 of 5
11/22/06 at 6:17am
Thread Starter 
Could anybody offer any advice on use of velvet crabs? I bought some, frozen, on impulse yesterday and have found only very sparse info (one recipe for souffle) on the web.

How much meat does one crab shell contain (i.e. grams per 100 gram crab)?

How have you prepared or eaten them yourself?

Any comments gratefully received.
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post #2 of 5
11/22/06 at 6:24am

Velvet crabs

If this is what I call Soft Shell Crabs, or crabs recently molted from their shells, just dust with flour and saute briefly in butter. You eat the whole thing.
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post #3 of 5
11/22/06 at 6:45am
Thread Starter 
After a google search or two I don't think they are. Velvet crabs are Portunus puper whereas it seems "soft shell crab" can refer to several species such as blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) or, in asia, the mangrove crab (which itself is a name that refers to several species which happen to live among mangroves).

I have insufficient posts to enable me to use a link so here is a quote from the wikipedia
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post #4 of 5
11/22/06 at 7:02am

Velvet Crabs

If they were frozen they must have been already steamed. I guess you would just thaw and eat. No idea of the meat to scrap ratio of the body. Dunginess crabs are high but blue crabs are low.
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post #5 of 5
11/23/06 at 7:08am
Thread Starter 
Thanks for your help. I found that Mitchell Tonks' book "Fresh" has Baked Rice with Velvet Crabs and Saffron, p.78, if anyone is interested.

He says "Take the top shells off the crabs, remove the dead men's fingers, and put the top shell back on. That is all the preparation that is needed".

Which sounds good to me!
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