Alaskan King Crab Legs

Hey All,
I wanted to make King Crab Legs for my husband's birthday on Wednesday. I called Costco and they said they are only carrying them on the weekends. Dirk's has them for $22/pound abd Fox and Obel for $29. I have always had good luck at Dirk's, but I am wondering if anyone has better ideas? Has anyone purchased them from Isaacson and Stein?
Thanks for any help that you can offer.

HI,

I was at H-Mart in Niles on Saturday evening: King Crab legs at $6.99/lb. Not snow crab, I know the difference!

Regards,
CAthy

i was @ h mart today as well and saw the king crabs mentioned. also saw and bought a whole tenderloin for $5.95 lb. never saw it that cheap (wholesale) in my entire career let alone retail.

My favorite spot to pick up King Crab Legs is Supreme Lobster in Villa Park. I have been buying crab, fish, and lobster from these guys for years, since I did food purchasing for Hyatt.

Recently I did have good luck with the King Crab legs I purchased @ Costco. I was surprised.

Supreme Lobster
220 E. North Avenue
Villa Park,IL.

www.supremelobster.com

I have bought them at Issacson and Stein. They are very good, but if I remember correctly, they only come in 5LB bags for $70. Price is liable to change with the season, that's what it was the last time I bought it there.

For the record, H-Mart was out of King Crab today (the LTH effect, don't-you-know).

-ramon

Hi,

I am looking for some info on King Crab and found this interesting factoid

Fisherman's Express wrote:Sizes and Counts
Commonly king crab is measured by how many crab legs it would take to make 10 pounds. A size "12-15" would mean there is on an average 12 to 15 legs per 10 pounds. Sizes can range from 6-9 (really big stuff) to 21-24's.

Trying to gauge how much crab meat relative to shell, this seems closest to being an answer:

Pacific Seafood wrote:(King Crab) YIELD: Live to cooked sections: 60%; Live to cooked meat: 25%; cooked sections to cooked meat: 42%.

As opposed to:

Pacific Seafood wrote:(American Lobster) YIELD: Whole to meat hard-shell: 35-40%; whole to meat new-shell: 30-35%.

Even though most of you hate Dominick's, they occasionally have 6-9 king crab legs for $10.99/lb (normal price is $19.99/lb).

I made the mistake of reading this post Saturday night, and king crab legs were stuck in my head. So, when my wife fell off a chair (don't ask) and put the kibosh on our father's day plans, I figured she deserved some king crab. I had an errand to run on Clybourn anyway, so stopped by Dirk's, my first time there, honest to G-d. Not surprising for a Sunday afternoon, they were TOTALLY cleaned out except for tuna burgers, some OK-looking salmon, and shellfish. So, I splurged and got the king crab, about 3.5 pounds, at $22/pound.

Boy, was it worth it! These were some of the longest, thickest, meatiest crab legs I have ever seen. At the fishmonger's suggestion, I defrosted in cold water, cut a seam down the length of each leg (hurray for Wusthof shears!), slathered and shoved in some melted garlicy butter, and threw them on the grill for a few minutes. The meat was warm, juicy, tender, flavorful and abundant. What a great treat. Not cheap, but I know we would have paid more in a restaurant, and probably gotten an inferior product too.

That's the recipe my son uses for Dungeness crab, though we prefer to start with live ones. A little mesquite smoke isn't bed with this approach.

I was at Sam's today and bought King Crab Legs at $11.34/lb. for 6-9's. They are HUGE! Brought home 2 legs for $26.00...over a pound each!

What do you find is the best way to cook crab legs without a grill handy? Alton Brown says to wrap in wet paper towels with saran and microwave, but that's hard for me to think about... I know steaming is tricky if they don't bend to fit the pot, but if anyone has any other ideas I'm very interested. Also, what is the best thing to look for when purchasing? Obviously they should still be frozen, but beyond that are there warning signs?

Not a crab leg pro but if the way to your heart is with bacon, why don't you try wrapping the crab meat with bacon like a scallop and put in the oven for about 10 minutes????? Otherwise, since they are already cooked you just need to heat them. The oven would be my choice.

I'm a crab purist - I barely even dip in butter when I eat it. Would the oven dry out the meat? I think it might be my one loophole regarding the bacon...

99% of the time I steam my crablegs on the stovetop. A little Old Bar, cloves of garlic, lemon juice, and some tobasco sauce in the steaming liquid, and then a vegetable steamer rack in a large pot. They come out perfect every time.

I do grill them sometimes, the grilled shell gives them a different flavor.

I like Alton Brown, but I would never put a beautiful King Crab leg in the microwave.

That sounds lovely - how long do you let them steam? I love Alton too, but sometimes I think he's gone over the deep end...

Place a ramikin full of water in the oven at 300 so the water steams. When the water is steaming, put the legs on a cookie sheet for about 10 minutes...I guess!

Penny,

Typically about 10-12 mins. Once I can take one out, and it I can see steam coming off the leg itself they are done.

I also like to do a "steamer" where I have a bottom layer of red potatoes, steam them for about 10 mins, and then add corn on the cob, Kilbasa, and crab legs and steam another 10 mins or so. One of my favorites.

I agree regarding butter and king crab especially, it is typically so sweet I barely use the melted butter on the sweet meat.

Butter's a no-no, but what about lemon or lime? I'll also sometimes throw a little BBQ seasoning on them.
By the way...I think I'm now gonna buy some legs for tonight and do the steamer as suggested. It sounds great!

Penny wrote:What do you find is the best way to cook crab legs without a grill handy? Alton Brown says to wrap in wet paper towels with saran and microwave, but that's hard for me to think about... I know steaming is tricky if they don't bend to fit the pot, but if anyone has any other ideas I'm very interested. Also, what is the best thing to look for when purchasing? Obviously they should still be frozen, but beyond that are there warning signs?

You really should try Alton's microwave method. To me it leaves the meat closest to it's original cooked state, and I have prepared them in every way imaginable. All you are looking to do is reheat, you are not cooking them at all. Most other methods I have tried seem to dry them out too much.
Jamie

Do you thaw them before you use the microwave or do you let the thaw add to the steaming?

Penny wrote:Do you thaw them before you use the microwave or do you let the thaw add to the steaming?

I usually buy them the day I am going to eat them, so by the time I get home from store and such, they are close to defrosted. But I usually leave them out on counter for an hour or so before hand, so I'd say they are par-frozen.

I had my first King Crab leg experience last weekend. I bought about 2.5 pounds of King Crab legs at Jewel on N. Ashland on impulse for, I believe 10.99/lb with preferred card. I've never prepared these before, but went with an easy defrost in the refrigerator overnight followed by a slow heat/steam in a foil covered dish in the oven. I cracked the shells before heating and poured a savory butter w/ garlic and paprika over the whole mess before sealing up the foil. It came out pretty well, the meat extracted easily in huge chunks and for the most part was sweet and juicy, although some pieces were surprisingly salty, too salty, much more so than I ever would have expected. Is this wierd? Is this a jewel thing? My butter was unsalted. What gives?

That said, I'm looking forward to more King Crab legs. I think I prefer the flavor of dungeness crabs I've grown up eating with family in northern california (always fresh, to be fair), but the sheer monstrosity and effort to eating ratio of these King legs was great, and I'd happily throw a few on the grill as a bbq app. or as prepared above if I can figure out this saltiness business.

Hi,

The crab is cooked and flash frozen immediately after catching on the ship. The saltiness is very likely from the initial cooking.

Regards,

sasquatch,


perhaps buying the king crab at Jewel was the problem. My mom ocasionally gets me some king crab, and snow crab at Jewel, and it is always of average, or poor quality compared to the product at Supreme Lobster, or even Costco. Maybe try a different source next time, and you will have different/better results.

I found this website to be helpful when I first started cooking crab legs at home.

Jewel/Dominick's occasionally have king crab legs on sale for the same $10ish price as Sam's/Costco, but I've found the size of their crab legs (i.e. Jewel/Dominick's) to be highly variable - sometimes huge, sometimes tiny. Also, since crab legs are a product that is frozen when caught, I'd rather buy them at a place that has them still frozen (sometimes Jewel/Dominick's has them in the main fish counter on ice, where they can thaw, rather than in the freezer).

nsxtasy wrote:Also, since crab legs are a product that is frozen when caught, I'd rather buy them at a place that has them still frozen

Unless, of course, you buy the delicious but expensive fresh ones that Dirk's sells every now and again.

Dirk's Fish
2070 N. Clybourn
Chicago, IL
773-404-3475

I thought all king crab was frozen very shortly after being caught.

kuhdo wrote:I thought all king crab was frozen very shortly after being caught.

It is.

Regards,

A small amount of live king crab makes it to the midwest and the east coast.

The NY Times had an article about the practice back in march 2001.