Freezing Cleaned Raw Crabs

[shtoong]

Has anyone here every  taken the backs off off crabs, cleaned out the guts and then frozen to cook at a later date. I was thinking of doing this to eat with some folks a week after crabbing. I can't get out when they are here.

[tattoo]

i have done that but i vacume seal them

[shtoong]

i have done that but i vacume seal them

I have a vacuum sealer. Did the taste okay? Was the meat consistency firm?

[jp57]

I have never done that with raw ones, but have done that with freshly steamed ones. They lose a little bit of taste, but they still are great in the middle of the winter.

[tattoo]

they were ok but not as good a fresh catch

[Derwood]

I've done this by cleaning them all the way down to the "knuckle" portion -- legs off, claws off, just the main body broken in half. And then cooked the crabs in spaghetti sauce and served with pasta. My friend's dad showed me. I think it's a common way to do it in New Jersey. It was good. Not as good as fresh steamed crabs with JO/Old Bay, but still very good and not a bad way to take care of the leftovers. 

[Crabcruncher]

I have seen the frozen cleaned crabs cooked in the marinara sauce in small batchs of six, and served to guests before they are served the pasta.  It gives the sauce all the more flavor, and after all the crabs have been eaten, the pasta and sauce is served. The crabs are not broken in half for fear of adding small shell fragments to sauce.