But only a little. I was at the Asian grocery store last night and picked
up 2 dungeness crabs at $5 a pound. I boiled one last night and decided to
save the other for today. So I left it in the plastic bag and put it in the
fridge. It was very frisky. This evening, it was just barely alive. The
head was moving and the arms moved slightly, but it wasn't trying to crawl
around. I guess its metabolism slowed down in the fridge (even though I
thought its natural habitat was very cold). I put in the basket, put a
glass lid on top, held it tight, then put it in the steamer. It moved very
slightly for about 30 seconds, then stopped and started turning red. 20
minutes later I had a great meal. But I couldn't taste any difference
between steamed and boiled. I think next time I'll continue to boil because
the crab dies quicker and seems to suffer less.

AL wrote:

> But only a little. I was at the Asian grocery store last night and picked
> up 2 dungeness crabs at $5 a pound. I boiled one last night and decided to
> save the other for today. So I left it in the plastic bag and put it in the
> fridge. It was very frisky. This evening, it was just barely alive.


Let's put YOU in a plastic bag overnight and see how "frisky" you
feel...

--
Best
Greg

Gregory Morrow wrote:
> AL wrote:
>
>
>>But only a little. I was at the Asian grocery store last night and picked
>>up 2 dungeness crabs at $5 a pound. I boiled one last night and decided to
>>save the other for today. So I left it in the plastic bag and put it in the
>>fridge. It was very frisky. This evening, it was just barely alive.
>
>
>
> Let's put YOU in a plastic bag overnight and see how "frisky" you
> feel...
>

I was thinking the same thing. It probably wasn't the cold (these things
are from the northern Pacific, after all and used to cold), but rather
the lack of air from being in the plastic bag. According to articles
I've read, crabs can live for quite some time out of water, but they
still need to remain wet and have air to breathe.

PastaLover wrote:
> Gregory Morrow wrote:
>> AL wrote:
>>
>>
>>> But only a little. I was at the Asian grocery store last night and
>>> picked up 2 dungeness crabs at $5 a pound. I boiled one last night
>>> and decided to save the other for today. So I left it in the
>>> plastic bag and put it in the fridge. It was very frisky. This
>>> evening, it was just barely alive.
>>
>>
>>
>> Let's put YOU in a plastic bag overnight and see how "frisky" you
>> feel...
>>
>
> I was thinking the same thing. It probably wasn't the cold (these
> things
> are from the northern Pacific, after all and used to cold), but rather
> the lack of air from being in the plastic bag. According to articles
> I've read, crabs can live for quite some time out of water, but they
> still need to remain wet and have air to breathe.

Any chef knows if you are cooking live crab or lobster you keep them in the
cold (so they don't get ideas and plan escapes) but you don't put them in
plastic bags. The poor thing was probably starving for air. They *do*
breathe.

I remember when they first started selling live lobsters at somewhat fondly
recalled Red Lobster restaurant... they stuck them in the walk-in cooler
with bands on their claws. The line cooks used to scare the heck out of
some of the waitresses by asking them to go back there and get something
from the cooler and the lobsters were just walking around in there. This
was before the lobster tank arrived to put out front... memory fades but
this was around 1982...

Just don't put them in water in your bathtub. They do not live in fresh
water (eh, Nancy? Still can't believe my LLL did the same thing when company
came over and had to buy new lobsters! Go figure.)

If it's not canned or pre-frozen, do not eat dead shellfish.

Jill

In article >, AL > wrote:
>But only a little. I was at the Asian grocery store last night and picked
>up 2 dungeness crabs at $5 a pound. I boiled one last night and decided to
>save the other for today. So I left it in the plastic bag and put it in the
>fridge. It was very frisky. This evening, it was just barely alive.

Probably from suffocation.

>But I couldn't taste any difference between steamed and boiled.
>I think next time I'll continue to boil because the crab dies
>quicker and seems to suffer less.

If you want to prevent suffering, start the crab in a pot with about an
inch of cold water in it. Gradually heat it up to boiling. The crab
will just relax and expire quietly.

I like steaming better than boiling; I find that more of the flavor
is retained in the meat. This is more true with lobsters than
crabs.

-A

From Judy Rogers', author/chef/owner of Zuni's Rest. in S.F. you place the
crab in a moist paper sack, and then in a dry sack and boil/steam within
four hours. You can put the live crab in the freezer for 5-10 minutes before
either dismembering it for grilling, or steaming or boiling. I steam because
the flavor extracted from the skeleton for crab stock is much better than
that obtained with boiling, and the crab meat is better. Then we make Crab
Newberg, an awesome dish, with what leftover crabmeat there is, using the
stock.
Kent

"AL" > wrote in message
...
> But only a little. I was at the Asian grocery store last night and picked
> up 2 dungeness crabs at $5 a pound. I boiled one last night and decided
> to save the other for today. So I left it in the plastic bag and put it
> in the fridge. It was very frisky. This evening, it was just barely
> alive. The head was moving and the arms moved slightly, but it wasn't
> trying to crawl around. I guess its metabolism slowed down in the fridge
> (even though I thought its natural habitat was very cold). I put in the
> basket, put a glass lid on top, held it tight, then put it in the steamer.
> It moved very slightly for about 30 seconds, then stopped and started
> turning red. 20 minutes later I had a great meal. But I couldn't taste
> any difference between steamed and boiled. I think next time I'll
> continue to boil because the crab dies quicker and seems to suffer less.
>

On Sat, 17 Dec 2005 22:19:10 -0600, "AL" > wrote:

>But only a little. I was at the Asian grocery store last night and picked
>up 2 dungeness crabs at $5 a pound. I boiled one last night and decided to
>save the other for today. So I left it in the plastic bag and put it in the
>fridge. It was very frisky. This evening, it was just barely alive. The
>head was moving and the arms moved slightly, but it wasn't trying to crawl
>around. I guess its metabolism slowed down in the fridge (even though I
>thought its natural habitat was very cold). I put in the basket, put a
>glass lid on top, held it tight, then put it in the steamer. It moved very
>slightly for about 30 seconds, then stopped and started turning red. 20
>minutes later I had a great meal. But I couldn't taste any difference
>between steamed and boiled. I think next time I'll continue to boil because
>the crab dies quicker and seems to suffer less.
>
>
Don't fret. It died for a worthy cause. I'm sure it felt honoured.