It's Time You Knew The Truth About What Soft-Shell Crabs REALLY ...

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Late spring and early summer are beloved for a plethora of reasons, one of the best being the appearance of the soft-shell crab. If you’ve had the pleasure of eating one, you know that they hold all the flavor of your everyday crab without any of the hassle of prying meat from its sharp, thick shell -- basically, it's seafood in its most perfect state.

From Japanese restaurants to road-side seafood stops, these leggy crabs are worth seeking out. But before you start feasting, you might want to know WTF they are, anyway.

Soft-shell crabs are not a separate species of crab. They’re regular crabs -- in the U.S. they’re most typically blue crabs -- that have gotten too big for their shells. In order to keep on growing, they shed their shell and make new, bigger ones. In other words, they molt, and it is this molting process that makes soft-shell crabs such a treat.

In order to shed its shell, the crab forms an inner soft shell underneath, swells its body with water to break its current shell, slowly crawls out -- this can take 10 minutes alone -- and then begins the process of forming a new shell. It takes a couple of days for a new shell to fully harden. That's when we want to catch them.

The molting process looks a little like this. (You can watch the whole 8-minute video here).

YouTube: jackienaquin

Soft-shell crabs are best eaten golden and crisp. If you try to boil them as you would a normal crab, they would just fall apart. It’s a good idea to get your fill when you can because although the season is plentiful, it's also short.

Here are some must-try recipes to get you inspired.

1

Soft Shelled Crab With Pastured Butter, Lemon And Capers

Goldilocks Finds ManhattanGet the Soft Shelled Crab with Pastured Butter, Lemon and Capers from Goldilocks Finds Manhattan2

Soft Shell Crab Pakora Po’ Boy

Perfect MorselGet the Soft Shell Crab Pakora Po’ Boy recipe from Perfect Morsel3

Waffles Maryland Style

Wild Greens And SardinesGet the Waffles Maryland Style recipe from Wild Greens And SardinesAdvertisement 4

Panko-crusted Soft Shell Crab With Ginger Ponzu Sauce

Rasa MalaysiaGet the Panko-crusted Soft Shell Crab with Ginger Ponzu Sauce recipe from Rasa Malaysia5

Soft-Shell Crab Pasta

Wishful ChefGet the Soft-Shell Crab Pasta recipe from Wishful Chef6

Crispy Salt And Pepper Soft Shell Crab

Goldilocks Finds ManhattanGet the Crispy Salt and Pepper Soft Shell Crab recipe from Goldilocks Finds ManhattanAdvertisement 7

Tempura Soft Shell Crab

The Hungry ExcavatorGet the Tempura Soft Shell Crab recipe from The Hungry Excavator8

Cornmeal Crusted Soft Shell Crab With Buttermilk Apple And Chive Coleslaw

Pitchfork DiariesGet the Cornmeal Crusted Soft Shell Crab with Buttermilk Apple and Chive Coleslaw recipe from Pitchfork Diaries9

Spicy Soft-Shell Crab

Nutmeg NannyGet the Spicy Soft-Shell Crab recipe from Nutmeg NannyAdvertisement 10

Crispy Soft-Shell Crabs With Pea Shoots & Orange-Sesame Emulsion

Zen Can CookGet the Crispy Soft-Shell Crabs with Pea Shoots & Orange-Sesame Emulsion recipe from Zen Can Cook11

Cornmeal-Crusted Fried Soft-Shell Crabs

Sassy RadishGet the Cornmeal-Crusted Fried Soft-Shell Crabs recipe from Sassy RadishAdvertisement Before You GoLOADINGERROR LOADING Go to HomepageLEAVE A COMMENTSuggest a correction|Submit a tipAdvertisement

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