How to Pick a Maryland Blue Crab, Step by Step

If you didn’t grow up picking crabs, a pile of them on brown paper can look like a puzzle. It gets easy fast. Here’s how most people around here do it.

Set the table

Brown paper or newspaper over the whole table
A mallet and a butter knife for each person
Paper towels, and more than you think
Old Bay or J.O. on the table, plus melted butter or vinegar if you like
A bucket or bowl for the shells

Picking, step by step

Flip the crab on its back and pull off the apron, the flap on its belly. A thumbnail or the tip of your knife works.
Turn it over, hold the body, and lift the top shell off from the back.
Scrape away the gills, the spongy gray fingers on each side. Those don’t get eaten.
Break off the face at the front. The yellow mustard in the middle is up to you. Plenty of people love it.
Hold the body with both hands and snap it in half down the middle.
Twist off the legs. Pull the back swimming fin out slowly and the lump meat often comes with it.
Work the rest of the meat out of the chambers with your fingers or the knife.

The claws

Lay the knife blade across the claw just below the pincer joint and tap the back of the blade with the mallet. Pull the shell away and the meat should come out in one piece. Or just crack them with the mallet, gently.

Jimmies and sooks

Flip a crab over and look at the apron. Males, called jimmies, have a long, narrow apron shaped like the Washington Monument. Mature females, called sooks, have a wide, rounded one, like the Capitol dome.

A lot of the Bay’s crabbing still happens out around Smith Island and Tangier. Our Tangier Sound chart covers that water, with every gut and channel traced from survey data.

For the crab feast