Thank you for the comments!
Crabs range from King to Dungeness, Jonah and Blue in size and effort required to obtain meat is inverse to the size.
When available at H-Mart, H-Mart is your best bet for quality and price.
Crabs like lobster m MUST be lively when taken from the tank or for the blue which is sold dry at H-Mart, moving. Note that if the bin has just been filled, the blue crab may not move due to the temperature at which they are held.
First step whether alive or cooked is to remove the apron underneath.
Blue crabs for Korean prep are dispatched alive. quartered and aged in a soy sauce blend.
Otherwise your steamer is your friend for crab.
After steaming, remove the legs, crack and pick. King may be cut lengthwise.
The body always comes apart the same, lift the top and bottom apart. Reserve the crab brains or innards and liquid for a stew. Roe in a blue is bright orange and a delicacy.
Use a lobster pick and pull apart the body, you will find the meat in pockets. Discard the cartilage and shells.
For any but a-blue crab, we give a light wash before service to remove the various bits remaining
We usually serve each person a body part and legs hot and let them do the picking.
What is not used is cooled, picked later.
Note: The stuff you get in containers in refrigerated section has either additives or has been ‘flashed Pasteurized’, another term for cooked. It may be from anywhere in the World.
Never touch the stuff myself along with scallops unless they are shipped directly to me from a shipper I use.
Hope this helps.
-Richard