Sous Vide Is the Perfect Way to Cook Crab
Almost all of the crabs you see at the grocery store – whether whole Dungen or Alaskan legs – come pre-cooked and frozen. This extends the shelf life and preserves the flavor of the meat, but also makes cooking crustaceans an easy way to reheat and serve. To avoid overcooking your precious crab when reheating it, you should use an immersion circulator.
Steaming or boiling crabs is not that difficult, but problems can arise if you tend to be distracted or plan to consume them multiple times. It takes me about 30 minutes to walk through one Dungeness crab and by then the second crab has cooled down and I’m sad. It’s the same with a pile of legs. The lower temperature of the sous-vide water bath means you can leave the sea bugs in the bath for a full hour without overcooking, allowing you to take the hot crab out of the crab bag at your leisure.
Then there is the bagged liquid, which is an added bonus. In most sous vide projects, sealing food in a vacuum bag helps it cook evenly and keep it underwater, but the pointy nature of crabs’ claws and legs makes them a poor candidate for this. Plus, even with a vacuum seal, the crab is quite buoyant, so you’ll need a little extra help to keep it underwater. Instead of stuffing the base of the bag with butter knives or weights, you can add a little water (a cup or two) to the bag and then clip it to the edge of the tub. The water will keep the bag submerged while it infuses the delicious crab flavor – essentially crab broth and you should use it to make risotto. (You can also add some herbs or Old Bay to the bag, but I prefer my crab, cooked without additives and dipped in oil.) To make sous vide crab, you will need:
- Whichever crab you love
- Water
- Butter for serving
Fill a basin or bucket with water and set it to 140 ℉. Place whole crab legs in gallon freezer bags and add two cups of water to each bag. Place the bags in the tub, then secure the open side over the tub wall. Cook for at least 30 minutes or up to an hour. Remove the crab from the bag, save the broth for later, and eat with plenty of ghee.