How to prepare/clean a live mud crab for cooking

Preparing a live mud crab seems to be very difficult to do however it is actually very simple and easy. If you read on, you will see how easy it is and you should definitely try to do this at home yourself without having to go to a restaurant every time when you crave for mud crabs.

There are actually 2 different ways to prepare a mud crab. One is the traditional way of killing a live mud crab which we will not show you how to because it is considered as inhumane for many of us these days. We are going to show you another way, which is more humane and a more preferred way by most people these days.

The more humane way is to put the live mud crab "to sleep" by placing it in the coldest compartment of your fridge for 20 to 30 minutes. Then take the crab out of the fridge. Clean the crab using a brush under the running water.

First of all, take the top shell off by removing the it starting from the back.Then lay it upside down on your chopping board and use a cleaver to cut the crab into half along the midline. Remove the gut from the shell and also take off the gills which are the grey 'slices' on the body.

In order for the meat to absorb the marinades and sauces, we would crack the shells of claws and arms .

So that's all you need to do! It should be a quick 5 to 10 minute job to prepare a live mud crab for cooking. And you do it the same way for a small mud crab or a giant mud crab.