The Genius Hack For Removing Crab Meat From The Legs

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Eating freshly cooked crab is a particular feast that requires a bit of manual labor before it can be enjoyed — unless, of course, one is using a fork and knife to cut into a classic Maryland Crab cake. Some shy away from crab as they believe that the work of getting the crab meat is more hassle than it's worth. Others find eating a whole crab is too messy because it involves your fingers and hands, which usually end up covered in crab juices and bits of broken shells.

There are special tools designed to make the crab consumption process easier, of course, like special crab forks and crackers to open up the shells. You can also use a nutcracker to free the crab meat, but there is an easier hack to seamlessly remove the crab meat from the legs without using your grip force. According to TikTok's Joshua Weissman, all you need is a pair of handy kitchen scissors and a simple tapping motion to force out whole pieces of intact crab meat.

Make eating crab easier and mess-free

Consuming a whole crab is a multi-sensory and messy experience; It involves buying live crabs, choosing a process to cook them, and then finally, cracking the shells open to enjoy the sweet white meat. But while the act of cracking crab shells open may be a pleasing ASMR experience, the kitchen shear and tap method is far more efficient.

@flakeysalt

The crab leg trick baybeeee #cooking #fyp #food

♬ original sound – Joshua weissman

To employ this genius crab hack, first, take the crab leg and then break it into smaller segments at the natural joining point, the joint. Next, use your scissors to snip off an end of each segment to create a large opening for the crab meat to exit. Then you'll hold the segment in one hand, with the snipped end facedown on a cutting board or directly to your plate and tap with force until the leg meat falls out in one whole piece.

A word of warning for those that enjoy every morsel of crab meat: This crab hack may not work so well on smaller crab legs, nor the finicky claws.