How to Eat a Maryland Blue Crab

Pairs well with a pasta salad

1. Flip the cooked crab on its shell (the belly should be faced up). Get the knife, put it under the apron then lift the apron and break it off and discard. Re-flip the crab again (the shell should be on top). Male crabs have a thin apron and female crab’s aprons are wider and rounder.
2. Look for a hole between the shell and the actual body of the crab. Hold the body of the crab with your left hand and stick your right thumb in the hole and lift it up so the shell comes off, discard the shell.
3. Use your fingers or knife to clean the gills on either side of the crab. (the gills are NOT edible, so discard them) The yellow/green/brown/orange colored substance is the fat, heart, lungs, and eggs of the crab, which are edible.
4. Use the knife and break the crab in half. Then break the claw off to save for eating later.
5. Choose one side of the crab and take your knife to cut it in half again (lengthwise) through the center of each half, from there you pick out all the meat with your fingers. You repeat on the other half of the crab.
6. Eat the claw! Put the claw on the table with the pincers facing up. Place the knife just behind the joint and get the mallet and hit the knife gently so the shell will crack (do it on the other side of the claw as well). Then, pull the shell off and the meat should come out whole. If this doesn’t work, use your knife and dig the meat out.

Source: WkikHow