Sqwertz wrote:
>
> On Thu, 09 Nov 2017 09:21:51 -0500, Gary wrote:
>
> > jmcquown wrote:
> >
> >> You're right, soft shell crab won't be available in February; they have
> >> a very short season (they usually shed their shells around May).
> >
> > You've said that before and you are wrong. During the warm water
> > season - spring to early fall, crabs can molt 2-3 times, plus ALL
> > crabs don't do that on the same day. For at least 5-6 months,
> > crabs are constantly molting. Soft shell crabs are consistantly
> > available as long as the water is warm and they haven't buried
> > themselves in the sand for the winter.
>
> And 98% of soft shell crabs are frozen after they molt and harvested.
> It kills the enzymes that prevent them from hardening up again.
I would guess that 100% of them are immediately put on ice (or
they should be). The only way a soft shell crab can be caught is
to spot one in shallow water and chase it with a hand-held net
and scoop it up. They hide out until new shell hardens and they
can't eat either as the claws are soft mush. Commercial crabbers
never catch soft shell crabs but they do see signs of ones caught
getting ready to molt.
https://www.bluecrab.info/redsign.htm
Those crabs are kept in holding tanks and constantly checked
until they finally do back out of their shells. I've seen that
operation at a place on the Eastern Shore of Virginia several
years ago. Right when they finally get out of old shell, they are
immediately harvested. Not killed but packed in ice. This is
regular ice (vs salt water ice). The cold temp (33-34F) puts them
in hibernation mode plus without the salt water, they don't
harden. So they aren't actually frozen but very close. Packed in
boxes, layered with plenty of ice.
These are what is shipped to restaurants everywhere. And....I
don't know if they pack them in salt water ice to ship, that
would freeze and kill them but still be good. Most shipping
overnight of seafood uses dry ice.
I've caught, picked, and frozen crab meat (in 1/2 pound baggies)
and it's just as good from the freezer 8 months later as it was
fresh picked. Freezing seafood does NOT reduce it's quality. The
Japanese buy frozen on the boat tuna and pay a premium price for
that. Any swordfish you buy was also frozen at sea (immediately
beheaded, gutted, then packed in salt water ice). Alaskan king
crab is kept alive on boats in a hold but the buyers immediately
cook and freeze them. No loss of quality. None at all, Sheldon.
> Also,
> thanks to better living through science, crabs can be triggered to
> molt any time of the year.
I haven't heard about that but I wouldn't be surprised.
> Fresh soft shell crabs have only a couple
> hours from harvest to plate before they're inedible if not frozen.
Try WAY less than a couple of hours. I was crabbing once. While
waiting for bites on the lines, I walked around through the
shallows (12-18 inches deep) and a nice sized crab ran right by
me. I chased it down and scooped it up in my crab net. It had
*just* molted because as I took it out of the net it was
completely soft like handling a piece of raw meat.
That's a very rare catch so I decided to go on home right away
and finally try a soft shell crab. Took me about 45 minutes to
collect my lines and quickly drive home. To cook a soft shell
crab, you just kill it, lift the two pointy ends of the shell and
remove the gills (aka 'dead men'), then fry and eat the whole
body.
Anyway, just in that 'less than an hour' time the crab had
already formed a 'paper shell.' That's the new hard shell
developing. I cooked and ate it, but that paper shell ruined it.
Kind of like eating a piece of good meat still wrapped in thin
cellophane. Nasty texture.