Bay Small Crabs Naturally taste sweet!

Blue Crabs find estuaries, lagoons, and sounds as perfect waters for food foraging. With a lifespan of 3 years, they reach legal catching sizes, 5” + after about a year. Periwinkles, clams, oysters, mussels, recently perished fish, eelgrass, and whatever they can get their claws on, fattens the blue crab. The recently mature small blue crab, 5”-5.5” sheds its shell 4 to 5 times a month, while an older crab 6” + and beyond takes 30-50 days to reach the need to “bust out” of the hard carapace. This difference may explain why most crab eaters exclaim, “Small Bay Crabs 5”-5.5” require a bit more picking to get as much meat as a larger crab, but the meat is sweeter, worth the effort!”

The question to ask is “Why is the meat sweeter?” When the small crab molts out of its shell so frequently, it allows the salty water to permeate the meat more than the shelled older crabs. The salt “seasons” the meat, giving it a sweeter hint. As mentioned earlier, crabs eat about anything they can find and that includes the shedded shell. If they can’t find a periwinkle (a snail) to their liking, they may gnaw on the shell, which will add calcium, vitamins, and minerals to their diet. Calcium has a bit of a bitter taste, but with the small crab’s numerous times submersing themselves without a hard shell, the calcium’s taste transforms into an extra sweetness from the salty, brackish water.

Both the frequent molting and calcium diet explains the sweetness, but crab connoisseurs may also notice one more difference. Lastly, with the numerous moltings from the shell, the flesh (meat) isn’t as compacted as the larger crabs, so the small crab lover may notice a flakier meat. Yes, you may surmise these facts about a crab’s lifespan to make a small crab your go-to for a Traditional Maryland Crab Feast but share these facts and you’ll prove your expertise in everything blue crab!