From the north tip of Washington State to the southern tip of California, a 1000+ miles of shoreline are available for Dungeness crabbing. From a young age, my summers were spent crabbing on the North Oregon Coast, going out in the boat with my grandpa, hauling up the crab traps, then bringing the crabs back to cook up for dinner. Over the years, after thousands of crabs cooked, I have found my favorite way to cook Dungeness crabs to get the best tasting, sweetest Dungeness crab meat. Here’s my favorite method for cooking Dungeness crabs:Step 1 – Clean Your Crabs. As much as folks love “crab butter” after cooking crabs whole, you want to split your crabs in half, throwing out the top shell and all the innards of the crab. The innards have sand and toxins, which will cook into the meat when crabs are cooked whole. To get the best tasting Dungeness crab meat, always clean your crabs. A Crack ’N Crab clean is an easy, efficient way to clean your crabs.Step 2 – Get a big pot, fill with water, salt, and boil! Boiling the Dungeness crabs is the easiest way to fully cook the crabs. And by adding non-iodized salt, the salty water will bring out the salty sweetness of Dungeness crabs. I like to add 1/4 cup of salt for every gallon of water in your cooking pot. Bring up to a consistent boil.Step 3 – Add the Dungeness crabs to Boiling Water. Make sure the water is boiling hot, then add all your cleaned crab. Don’t overfill your cooking vessel with too many crabs at one time. The cooking time will adjust based on the water boiling, but I like around 15 – 20 minutes.Step 4 – Take the Crabs Out of the Water, Cool Down the Crab. Take a pair of good tongs and place your cooked crab on a large cooking sheet to cool down. Step 5 – Clean Your Crabs and Enjoy! Start cleaning the crabs and enjoying the fresh crab meat. I love dipping large pieces of crab in butter with some white wine, garlic bread and salad. Some of my other favorite dishes are crab cakes, baked crab puffs, crab rangoon and crab ramen.The cleaning and cooking process can take awhile, so grab a beverage, family, friends, and enjoy some crabbing and fishing stories around the crab cooker before enjoying the best seafood in the United States!
