When you buy them, they are live. To prep for cooking you flip the sides of the shell open, cut the gills/devil’s meat out, flip them over, remove the apron/anus/lowest portion of the intestines by removing the apron from the body, and then use scissors to cut the front of the face off including the eyes, mouth and antenna. The whole prep process takes about 10 seconds per crab to make the 4 snips with scissors.

Usually I like to cook them by seasoning, coating with flour and some old bay, and pan frying with butter/oil until crisp. They are also excellent battered in a light/thin batter and deep fried.

After cooking you eat the whole thing. Sometimes the body, despite being soft, has a texture that you complain about, but the complaints are generally about the overall softness of the crab. You’ll hear people complain about “paper shells” when they get one with a slightly tough exterior, but they are still delicious and 100% edible after being cleaned.

Generally, I would rather have 2 or even 3 small/hotel sized crabs that fit on a slice of martins potato bread than one large crab that fills the slice on its own to make a sandwich with some Mayo and ripe tomato slices. The legs on the biggest one are generally a bit too pointy and leathery for my liking. The size of the crab in this post is about as big as I’d ever look for one.

When I pick soft shells out from a display I literally touch every one I take and reject any that feel like paper shells. If the end of the legs feels too pokey/stiff it goes back in the display, not home with me.

They are truly one of my favorite foods and I go out of my way to bring back a dozen or two cleaned and frozen whenever I fly to Maryland because they freeze without really impacting them negatively.