How to buy fresh crab meat so you can get premium quality of crabs? Okay so many people prefer to buy crab meat in fresh condition rather than buying frozen or pasteurized crab meat since fresh crab meat has the best quality in terms of taste and texture. Although this is not wrong either but buying fresh crab meat is quite challenging especially when you do not know how to tell their qualities. See, smell, and touch are the three basic guides when buying fresh crab meat in the fresh seafood market and you can also follow these simple guides, the detailed explanation is below.
How to buy fresh crab meat in the market?
Buy fresh crab meat in the seafood market when they are still alive need some considerations so you can get desired crabs. Before you pay some money and bring the crabs home, you should check for their qualities with three rules of thumbs: see, smell, and touch them.
1.      See the crabs by its appearance
The risk of buying fresh crab meat online is that you cannot see them directly so you cannot tell whether the crab which going to be delivered to you is really the freshest and in premium quality. However, when you visit fresh market to look for fresh live crabs, you can see them to check their appearance directly and thus you can tell whether they are in good condition or not. See their shell, look for any discoloration and if there is none then you can considerate to buy them. Take out the crabs out of the tanks and if you see they fight by flip and move their claws or legs then this is mean they are healthy crabs. It is also the sign of good quality of crabs. If you see the crabs are weak and do not fight or struggle when you take out them from the tanks then avoid buying them. In addition, if you spot that the crabs are missing their claws, legs, or eyes then do not buy them. Buy only crabs with complete parts is a must.
2.      Smell the fresh crabs
Fresh crabs should smell like the ocean salty water. They are not smell stink or off putting just like ammonia. You need to sniff the crabs to make sure that they are really wild caught crab meats that harvested from the ocean not long ago. If they smell weird or smell like the tanks then they are possible to be old crabs. If you buy fresh but dead crabs as well, this can become a sign that whether they are the freshest crabs or not. How to buy fresh crab meat in premium quality by smelling them can prevent you to buy an old crab.
3.      Touch the crabs
The easiest way to tell whether the crab is in good or not is by touch the crab and just like we already mentioned above, you need to take the crabs out of the tanks. Touch their shell and make sure that they have hard shell because it is the sign that they are premium quality of crabs in healthy condition. Unless you want to buy soft shell fresh crabs, their shell should be hard enough by your touch.
With these simple basic rules of thumb, you can know how to buy fresh crab meat in nice quality. You can bring them fresh live crab at home and then cut them apart. Do not forget to rinse and clean them first. Gutted out the crabs and start to prepare them. Choosing to buy fresh crab meat is meaning that you should cook them immediately after you cut them dead since they will start to spoil within two hours more or less if you just leave them in room temperature or refrigerator.
Why you should buy fresh crab meat?
Of course it is because fresh crab meat offers the best texture and taste which cannot be compared by pasteurized crab meat in cans or frozen crab meat. They are best when still alive and then cut dead to be cooked immediately in the same day you buy them. Most of the crab qualities averagely have soft texture with sweet to slightly sweet flavor. When they are canned or frozen, the qualities of their texture and flavor could be less and this is why it is always best to buy them fresh when you have easy access for fresh crab meat. If you do not have such access then you can have frozen and canned crab meat for easy alternative.
Fresh crab meat suppliers
Where to look for fresh crab meat suppliers? After you know how to buy fresh crab meat in the market then it is the time for you to know how to look for the fresh crab meat suppliers. There are two options where you can buy fresh crab meat:
1.      Fresh crab meat buying on boat
2.      Fresh crab meat buying from fresh market
If you live near coastal area where the crabs are abundant to buy then do not hesitate to visit the fishermen directly where you can get fresh crab meat. It is the best thing to get the freshest crab meat which you cannot find in most of the supermarkets or grocery stores in the big cities. Moreover, buying fresh crab meat from the first hand meaning that you can negotiate for some cheaper price than when you buy them at supermarket or grocery stores.
Second alternative is to buy fresh crab meat in the fresh market or fish market where you can get fresh crab meat since most of the fishermen will also bring their live crab caught to the fresh seafood market. In such market, you need to be smart to find for freshest live crab since there are also old crabs kept in the water tanks for quite long time. Thanks that we already tell you know how to buy fresh crab meat so you can follow the guides to get good quality of fresh crab meat in the market.