wrote in message
...
On Sun, 22 Nov 2009 19:26:02 -0800, "Steve B"
wrote:

A lot of upscale crab houses kill the crabs before they cook them. It
makes a better presentation. You just stab them right at the point of
the apron with an ice pick. That way all the claws stay put

I lived in Texas and Louisiana for about ten years. I cooked crabs for my
new in-laws one time. I put them in tubs with salt for a few hours. Then
I
pulled them live, and ripped the shells off them, and cleaned the guts
out.
Boiled the shelly carcasses after that. They asked WTF I was doing, and I
just explained that I thought that sifting through crab guts to eat crabs
was unappetizing. THEY LOVED THE CRABS! They never cooked another whole
crab, hair, hide, eyeballs, and everything, but cleaned them first.
Softshells are another matter. Even old MaMa, who had been doing it the
old
way for decades preferred the clean method.

I was always confused by you Loosanna folks. You clean the crabs
before you cook them but you suck the goo out of the crawdads and eat
it.

I always thought picking crabs was a social event anyway. You can eat
a couple dozen and still want a hamburger.on the way home.

Technically, you do not suck the fat out of the head. There's a bunch of
other crap in there. You reach in with your thumbnail and get the orange
fat and separate it from the rest of the goo in there. Very good. If you
buy packages of cleaned crawfish, you get one small packet of fat per pound
of crawfish. It is orange. It is used to enhance some crawfish dishes like
etouffe. And most Louisiana folks cook crabs whole, not cleaning them
first. Unless I started a trend in the early 70's, and now it has caught on
and is the norm.

Steve