BLUE CRAB EGGS CRACKED
BLUE CRAB EGGS FREE

Have a craving for crab roe? You can skip the smelly crab traps and order them online. Some states are against harvesting female crabs altogether. Again, check with your state’s crabbing laws. People keeping crabs with up to 8 million tiny eggs inside them is very detrimental to the overall population.Ī female crab can contain roe even if she doesn’t have a huge sponge on her belly. Crabbing for female crabs with a sponge is illegal in most states and frowned upon in others.Ĭrab populations in every state are always tracked and regulated. Be sure to check out ’s article on Blue Crab Spawning.īefore you catch a taste for crab roe and start looking for female crabs to catch, be sure to check your state’s rules and regulations. It starts out as a bright pink color and slowly progresses to a dark black. The sponge takes around two weeks to fully develop and hatch. Female crabs, to reproduce, will mate with a male crab then produce what’s called a sponge under their apron.Īfter 2-9 months, the crab will produce a sponge.

BLUE CRAB EGGS CRACKED

That’s why I was lucky enough to find crab roe when I cracked open the crab.Ĭrabs have little flaps on their bellies called an ‘apron’.

BLUE CRAB EGGS FREE

Before I did some research, I thought that eggs only formed under the crabs, apron (the capitol building shaped part of the shell underneath the crab also known as the abdomen).Ĭrabs do mainly store eggs mainly in their abdominal region, but sometimes in any free space inside the crab’s carapace. What came as a shocker to me is that there are eggs inside the female’s carapace. Each has their own special version of the dish, and do a great job. If you are ever visiting North or South Carolina, keep an eye out for restaurants that serve she-crab soup. The crab meat is solely female, which said to be sweeter, which is true in my opinion. It’s a mix of crab meat, cream, roe, and to tang it up a splash of cherry. It was brought to America in the 1700s by Scottish settlers to the Carolinas and continues to enchant people with its creamy, warm taste to this day.Ī cross between a creamy bisque and chowder, the soup is a Carolina classic. She crab soup is a South Carolina delicacy. Be sure to eat it in moderation too much sodium and cholesterol can lead to health problems.Ĭrab roe is very common in tasty asian recipes, can be seen on sushi, and even in classic recipes such as crab cake as well as she crab soup. One ounce of roe contains a large amount of sodium of cholesterol but makes up for in its rich, slightly sweet taste. It’s best eaten raw, similar to roe that comes from fish (fish eggs). Now we know what crab roe is, but can we eat it?Įven with its bright, orange, and gooey look, crab roe is very edible and very tasty. It’s hard to miss with its very bright orange color, and forms along the inside of the crab’s carapace as well as along the intestines of the crab between its lungs. When you take off the top shell of a female crab, also known as the carapace, keep an eye out for roe. She has high-quality images of the “orange stuff” in female crabs. I don’t have an image of crab roe, but be sure to check out Chichi Wang’s article on crab innards. They form in a female crab after she is fertilized by a male crab, and can produce on average around 2 million microscopic crab larvae. I’ll do some research and look into what crab roe is, if it’s edible, and more.Ĭrab roe, as I mentioned before, is thousands and thousands of little tiny crab eggs. So, what’s the orange stuff inside a crab? After doing some research, I found that the “orange stuff” found inside female crabs is thousands and thousands of tiny eggs, also known as roe. I don’t regularly eat female crabs, but saw the freshly steamed beauty and I couldn’t resist.Ĭrack! Off came the top shell and I found orange gooey blobs lining the top of the shell.

Have you ever popped off the shell of a female crab, only to find orange stuff along the top of the shell and the center of the crab? That was me back in the summer during a crab feast.

Blue crab eggs