Yummy yummy crab

Crab is so yummy, but is pretty expensive, especially here in landlocked West Virginia. I felt I might appreciate the cost a bit more if I could see the work that goes into getting the crab meat from the sea to the market. So we toured a crab cannery.


The owner, using an old beat up crab trap, explained how the crabs get lured in with bait. The traps have small holes so undersized crabs can escape.



These 3 guys are sorting the crabs for size and also for softshell. Those are crabs that have recently molted and the exterior shell has not hardened yet.


Much of the crab that is brought to the cannery is sold to restaurants and wholesalers. Any that is not sold within 24 hours moves into canning process. First they are steamed under pressure for about 15 minutes. Without pressure cooking takes about 30 minutes.


Most of the workers at this cannery are Mexican guest workers. The factory has a long process each year to explain to the US government why all the positions can not be filled with local workers. Then they apply and receive so many visas...usually less than the number they really need. He said they could use about 60 and they had 35. Most had worked for him at least six years and several as many as 13. They come from Mexico to the eastern shore for 6 months and then go home for 6 months, always hoping the visas will come through for them the next year.

The people in this room pick out the chunk meat which goes into one plastic tub. The smaller pieces of back meat are in another tub. There is one guy who just picks the claws. He hammers and pulls, all in what looked like one seamless move. They work quickly as they get paid by the pound.


The tubs of back meat are opened and checked once again to make sure there is no shell inside.
The plastic tubs keep in the refrigerator for 2 weeks.

If they can't get all the available crab picked and into the plastic tubs within a day they then put them in cans, heating them to pasteurization level. They keep in the refrigerator for several months.

I asked him if the canned crab had the same flavor as the crab meat in the plastic tubs. I remember buying a can of crab meat years ago that was pretty awful with a metallic taste. He asked me if I got the can on the shelf near canned tuna and salmon and I had. He then said that most of those are from Asia and are cooked to a much higher temperature to have an even longer shelflife, but he feels the flavor is compromised a bit.

So, we have one shop here in Huntington that has fresh seafood brought in. We will check on availability of crab and we also know we can order from this cannery as well as the place in Baltimore where we stopped for lunch.