frozen crabs

[stuff]

 over the week end i defroste some crabs that i caught from del in august, defrosted them in the frig and steamed them, nasty  mushey and in the trash they went , after i wiped the tears from my eyes no more frozen crabs  -biker:

[Steve]

Frozen how? Whole and live (raw)? Whole and steamed?

[stuff]

as i am in the clean em b4  u cook them  i did clean them than froze them for later  well that turned out to be january  even OJ's could nt help of course i was warned about freezin them in this site but i had to try it  never again  but the crab a matic works great   thats the way i will do it next time  but than again may be the meat only will taste like the frozen bodys ,  any body know different ??

[Black Irish]

I freeze cooked crabmeat & soft crabs (raw) the same way with pretty good results. I freeze the crabmeat or crabs. Once frozen, fill the container up the rest of the way with cold water and put back in the freezer. They both will keep for at least 6 months this way, maybe longer.

[jack1747]

aint noutin like a vacuum packer for fish, soft crabs and crab meat..  best money i ever spent

[stuff]

 
B I  i do that with my fish  i should have done it with the crabs see i only had seven that i caught in del and wanted to bring them back to jersey ,froze them and forgot about them till last week ......

[Black Irish]

Yeah, stuff, I know what you mean  bummer.

[davo]

aint noutin like a vacuum packer for fish, soft crabs and crab meat..  best money i ever spent

Jack, could you explain what kind of vacuum packer you have, how you use it and how you prepare the fish and crabmeat for vacuum packing?..I'm thinking of getting one. I'm retired and I go crabbing several times a week now. This summer especially, I caught so many crabs that I was giving them away to neighbors and strangers because I didn't want them to go bad and I hated to freeze them because I've never had any good success in doing so. When I've tried them from the freezer they are somewhat bland and dry ....Help!

[jack1747]

Jack, could you explain what kind of vacuum packer you have, how you use it and how you prepare the fish and crabmeat for vacuum packing?..I'm thinking of getting one. I'm retired and I go crabbing several times a week now. This summer especially, I caught so many crabs that I was giving them away to neighbors and strangers because I didn't want them to go bad and I hated to freeze them because I've never had any good success in doing so. When I've tried them from the freezer they are somewhat bland and dry ....Help!

First, I only do the picked meat and fish filets.  Plus Crab cakes etc.  Not whole crabs.  I did a lot of reading and asking questions about vacuum packers.  The one we bought was from Wal Mart called FoodSaver, I think.  So far it has been GREAT.  The fish and crab, after 6 months, have been just as good as when they were fresh.   

[Black Irish]

Just freeze the crab cakes before you vacuum seal 'em or you'll end up with crab pancakes .

[davo]

Thanks for the tips guys....I also found this site to be very helpful.



http://www.vims.edu/adv/ed/crab/pick.html

[mrscharms]

Great site, Davo! 

But what I really want to see is the crab picking contest in Crisfield next year...I am determined to go...but then again, I am determined to do a lot of things!! 

If you don't want to invest in a vacuum sealer...you can do what someone on here taught me...I think it was JoeCrabs but not sure...just put your crab meat into a plastic bag...take as much air out of it as you can..then insert a straw into the corner of the bag and start sucking out the air!  It works!!!  I've got about 8 lbs of crab meat left from last season....going to try crab balls over the weekend! 

Janice

[davo]

Great site, Davo! 

But what I really want to see is the crab picking contest in Crisfield next year...I am determined to go...but then again, I am determined to do a lot of things!! 

If you don't want to invest in a vacuum sealer...you can do what someone on here taught me...I think it was JoeCrabs but not sure...just put your crab meat into a plastic bag...take as much air out of it as you can..then insert a straw into the corner of the bag and start sucking out the air!  It works!!!  I've got about 8 lbs of crab meat left from last season....going to try crab balls over the weekend! 

Janice

Thanks for the tip...I'll try it before I buy a vacuum sealer.

[mrscharms]

They can be expensive...!!!  It does work...if you are not doing too much freezing...this is an excellent alternative!

[jack1747]

I got our vacuum sealer from Wal-Mart.  Da Boss used the straw trick for years buts I got to tell ya the vacuum packed fish and crabs are 200% better than the straw trick.   

[Black Irish]

I guess I finally will blow the moths out of my wallet and buy a vacuum sealer. 

[stuff]

found a nice one on HSN they ran a deal with jar suckers to plus a bunch of bags  missed out that day but looking for them to offer them again, it was like $59.

[davo]

found a nice one on HSN they ran a deal with jar suckers to plus a bunch of bags  missed out that day but looking for them to offer them again, it was like $59.

Here's the HSN location for their vacuum sealer.





http://www.hsn.com/cnt/prod/default.aspx?webp_id=1946461&web_id=1946461&sz=0&sf=&dept=&cat=&subcat=&gs=&attr=&ocm=sekw

[davo]

Duh...! My wife just infomed me that she received a Black & Decker Freshguard vacuum sealer for Christmas ...she just has not used it yet...Here's the info..





http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?dest=9999999997&product_id=2299660&sourceid=0100000030660804902498#long_descr

[Steve]

I own a Seal-A-Meal (by Rival) and, while it's adequate, I can't recommend it. My unit just doesn't seem to have the "oomph" to really suck out all of the air. And I've come across numerous bags that have unsealed themselves after a few weeks in the freezer.

The old saying "you get what you pay for" holds true in this case. 

According to Consumer Reports magazine, their top rated pick is the Food Saver Professional II ($290) and their best value pick is the Food Saver V840 ($140). The Rival Seal-A-Meal came in dead last with only "fair" performance, which is how I would rate the unit as well. 

[jack1747]

I own a Seal-A-Meal (by Rival) and, while it's adequate, I can't recommend it. My unit just doesn't seem to have the "oomph" to really suck out all of the air. And I've come across numerous bags that have unsealed themselves after a few weeks in the freezer.

The old saying "you get what you pay for" holds true in this case. 

According to Consumer Reports magazine, their top rated pick is the Food Saver Professional II ($290) and their best value pick is the Food Saver V840 ($140). The Rival Seal-A-Meal came in dead last with only "fair" performance, which is how I would rate the unit as well. 

thats it, thats the one, v840, that Da Boss got It works great..

[BenFolds]

When water molecules freeze, they crystalize and become very jagged.  This is very similar to a plastic bag filled with broken glass.  Water in the raw meat freezes and starts to stab the crab meat.  It is extremely perishable when raw.  When you cook the meat, you toughen the meat because of the proteins; by making it coagulate via heat.  Protein strands are long when living, but applied to heat or acid, they coil and coagulate and clump together.  Explains why meat/eggs and others toughen when exposed to heat.


When you freeze a cooked crab, the tightened meat can resist water crystal damage better.

[tattoo]

You might be able to find a vacume sealing machine on E- Bay.

[Mad Crabber]

Benfolds- That is very interesting! I learned something new... cool.

I too have the Food Saver vacuum bagger and love it. I use it for seafood, prime steak, deer, and even long term storage of hunting ammo. Although very good, I would buy a better one next time as I have had a few of my seals leak after a year or two - but this is rare and probably caused by rough handling on my part. Regardless - if you are storing meat, you want a vacuum bagger!

[Larry_D]

I freeze cooked crabmeat & soft crabs (raw) the same way with pretty good results. I freeze the crabmeat or crabs. Once frozen, fill the container up the rest of the way with cold water and put back in the freezer. They both will keep for at least 6 months this way, maybe longer.

BI, let me see if I understand this, because I don't want to buy a vacuum sealer just to freeze crabmeat.

You cook the crabs, take out the meat, put it in something (a tupperware maybe?) and then freeze the extracted meat.  As soon as it's frozen, you fill the container with water and put it back in the freezer.

Does this result in a good freeze and usable crabmeat when you defrost it?  Thanks.