Almost every part of a crab contains something worth eating, but the richest meat is concentrated in the claws, legs, and body cavity. Beyond that, lesser-known parts like the tomalley (the soft, greenish organ inside the shell) and roe from female crabs are considered delicacies in many cuisines. The parts you discard are few: the gills, mouthparts, shell, and a small flap called the apron.
Claws and Legs
Claw meat is the main prize on most crabs. The claws contain the largest concentration of muscle, which translates to the juiciest, most flavorful meat. It tends to be slightly sweet and firm, holding its shape well whether you’re eating it straight from the shell or adding it to a dish.
Leg meat is leaner and more delicate. You can extract it by snapping the joints backward and sliding the meat out in clean pieces. On king crabs, the legs are where most of the eating happens. Roughly 25% of a king crab’s total body weight is edible meat, and nearly all of it comes from the legs and claws. Snow crab legs yield tender, flaky strands that pull apart easily, while Dungeness crab legs and claws are roughly equal in quality and flavor.
Body Meat
The body cavity holds a surprising amount of meat, especially on wider-bodied species like Dungeness and blue crabs. After removing the top shell (the carapace), you’ll find pockets of white meat nestled between thin cartilage walls. Breaking the body in half makes it easier to reach.
One especially prized section is the back fin meat, located near the rear swimming legs. It’s tender, sweet, and simple to access once you split the body. On smaller crab species, the body meat can be harder to pick out in worthwhile quantities. Many cooks reserve the bodies of smaller crabs for making stock, broth, or sauce bases, where the flavor still comes through even if the meat itself is too fiddly to extract.
The Merus
The merus is the largest segment of a crab’s leg, the section closest to the body. On king crabs in particular, it’s considered one of the most prized cuts because it contains a thick, solid column of meat that slides out easily. If you’ve ever eaten a king crab leg and found one section noticeably meatier than the rest, that was the merus.
Tomalley (Crab Mustard)
Inside the body cavity, you’ll find a soft, yellowish-green substance. This is the tomalley, sometimes called crab mustard, crab butter, or crab fat. It’s the crab’s hepatopancreas, an organ that functions as both liver and pancreas and serves as the main site for storing fat and nutrients.
Tomalley is polarizing. It has a rich, pungent, intensely “crabby” flavor that some people love and others scrape away without a second thought. In Maryland and across the Delmarva Peninsula, the mustard from steamed blue crabs is treated as a delicacy. In Japan, it’s known as kanimiso (“crab miso”) and is sometimes served on its own or spread on toast. It also works well stirred into sauces, where it adds depth and acts as a natural thickener.
Nothing inside a crab is toxic, but the tomalley does filter impurities from the crab’s blood. In waters with pollution or algal blooms, contaminants can concentrate there. If you’re harvesting crabs from unfamiliar waters, local advisories will tell you whether the tomalley is safe to eat.
Roe (Crab Eggs)
Female crabs carry roe, a mass of tiny eggs that ranges in color from bright orange to deep red. Like fish roe, crab roe is rich in omega-3 fatty acids and has a briny, umami-forward flavor with an interesting, slightly grainy texture. It’s eaten in many Asian and coastal cuisines, sometimes on its own, sometimes mixed into sauces or pastes. Not every crab you buy will have roe, since only mature females carrying eggs will contain it, and in some regions harvesting egg-bearing females is restricted.
Soft-Shell Crabs: The Whole Thing
Soft-shell crabs are the one case where you eat virtually the entire animal, shell included. These are blue crabs harvested just after molting, the process of shedding their old hard shell to grow a larger one. For a window of just a few hours before the new shell hardens, the crab is completely soft. The shell, legs, claws, and body are all edible and are typically pan-fried, deep-fried, or grilled whole.
Soft-shell season runs from late April through September along the U.S. East Coast, peaking in May and June when warm water triggers more frequent molting. Before cooking, the gills, apron, and mouthparts are still trimmed away, but everything else goes straight into the pan.
Parts You Should Discard
Only a handful of parts get thrown away. The gills, sometimes called “dead man’s fingers” because of their feathery, finger-like appearance, sit in rows on either side of the body cavity. They aren’t poisonous, but they have a papery, fibrous texture that’s impossible to chew or enjoy. Pull them off and toss them.
The other discards are the mouthparts (the small, hard pieces at the front of the crab), the apron (the triangular flap on the underside of the body), and the top shell itself. The shell and apron have no meat, and the mouthparts are just hard bits of exoskeleton. If you want to get every last bit of value, the shells can go into a pot of water with aromatics to make a flavorful crab stock.
Nutritional Profile
Crab meat is one of the more nutrient-dense proteins you can eat. A 100-gram serving of cooked crab meat delivers about 19 grams of protein with very little fat. It’s an exceptional source of several minerals: that same serving provides about 73% of daily selenium needs, 69% of zinc, and over 100% of copper. You also get meaningful amounts of phosphorus (40% of daily value) and magnesium (15%). The one nutritional caveat is sodium. Crab meat is naturally high in it, with about 1,072 milligrams per 100-gram serving, close to half the recommended daily limit.