Mud Crabs

[monkey76]

I am madly trying to catch some muddies for xmas, does anyone know the best way to freeze them ie: am I best to freeze them whole then defrost and cook them xmas day or do I cook them first then freeze them then defrost them xmas day. Any suggestions would be great as I have promised the family some mud crabs for xmas day.
cheers

[sandbankmagnet]

I have done them both ways. If freezing green, make sure you clean first.

Neither is as good as fresh, but I've done some frozen greens as chilli muds that was not too short of perfect.

Actually come to think of it, the green ones are a bit better than the cooked ones, cos their salt water dip in the pot makes them more juicy. Others may disagree.

In any case. It's good news if you have so many that you have to freeze them.

[Pweter]

I don't know much about cooking mud crabs but normally my dad cooks them then leaves them in the fridge, not the freazer cause all the meat inside them gets all icey and it taste like a werid crab slushie.

Also it depends on how long your going to leave them in the fridge normally we cook them and leave them in the fridge for 4 days max.

sorry im not to good at crabing only know how to catch them and tie them up.

[whitingkiller]

Try and keep them alive for as long as possible before you have to cook them.
i have kept them alive at home for up to 10 days after capture..just need a shady spot where the sun doesn't belt dwn, fresh mangrove leaves in a big tub and just give them a dunk in a bucket of fresh sea water every second day.
frozen crzbs thawed out doesn;t do it for me!

[Noelm]

I guess it all comes down to the fact that frozen Crabs are better than NO Crabs (almost) so as long as the Crab is fresh (just cooked) and frozen ASAP then it will be better than nothing, but as mentioned, you can keep them alive for a while, I have even seen guys make up a cage and keep them in a very secret location, feeding them now and then! not too sure how legal it is or how Humane but they do it, I never catch enough to worry about!

[timddo]

Never freeze an uncook crab , the meat will be soggy when defrosted. The best idea is to Boil them when caught, then freeze them. ( make sure you wrap newspaper around them to prevent it from cold burns.

( the meat turns to liquid when you freeze crabs).

[Scott nthQld]

I agree with timdo, if the crabs are frozen green, their meat will turn to mush when cooked in most cases. If you can try and catch them a couple of days before hand and keep them live, nothing tastes better than fresh

[kingtin]

fresh mangrove leaves in a big tub

Beware! You can be fined heavily for damaging mangroves. Fisheries once pulled us at the pin and gave us a warning when they saw only a couple of mangrove pods in the bucket.........I told 'em the truth in that they had got in there from the cast net and they said that it didn't matter how we got 'em you shouldn't be in possession.

Seems like you have to be a major player in real estate to be allowed to damage mangroves

kev

[kingtin]

I have even seen guys make up a cage and keep them in a very secret location, feeding them now and then! not too sure how legal it is

Bugger! You spotted us!

It's legal, as long as you aren't breaking the "in possession" rule. We have a "holding pot" which has the flus stitched up, so that we can keep 'em fresh in the water.

A warning though, if you're on an extended holiday and you leave a pot down with a "just under" in it, hoping for it to grow, then you are breaking the law. Once the pot has been lifted, you become "in possession" even if you return the pot and crab to the bottom. Dunno how it would be policed though.

kev

[oldboot]

Lots of chinese resteraunts keep em live in a fish tank. for quite a long period.

fresh is fresh.

cheers