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Funky Crab?

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Has anyone else had Bad Crab? Last seasons end bought 2 live crab from the chinese market. Had them steamed and brought them home to clean & crack. Upon opening the body the usually yellowish Goop in the body was a Nasty Funky Green color. That and the smell made me chuck them. Ok It's seasons end so i dismiss it. However Last week at Lyons in Newark I bought 3 crab all were fine . But Saturday at Ranch 99 in milpitas i bought 4 crabs 2 were fine but the last 2 were the same Foul Green. Anyone know what causes this? And Should I take the Crab back for replacement? I Know they eat "Crap" off the bottom of the ocean. Is it Oil or some other Foul substance? I'm almost ready to write off crab. Help???!!!

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  1. Sometimes the crap is green with the Blue Claw crabs on the east coast. Maybe it's the same for the west, depending on what they are eating. They always smelled fine, though. I never had a problem after eating one.

    1. You really might have "funky crab" -- but in my experience with Dungeness crab, it often has greenish stuff inside and sometimes smells a little funny. But I would have to see the green stuff in question to be sure it isn't something truly foul and different.

      1. i just posted a topic about a week ago saying how I was scared of these kinds of crab and always get mine at Whole Foods. $6-8 per pound, much more expensive than anywhere else but i have always loved it and it is much more convenient to my apartment.

        4 Replies
        1. re: laurenb

          I believe you were talking bout "cleaned" crab, probably with the semen removed, so you wouldn't know if it were yellow or green, anyway.

          1. re: Xiao Yang

            I think the OP is talking about crab "butter" which is a fat deposit inside the carapace; we went crabbing off of Mendocino one year and of the 20ish crabs I cleaned, they all had pleasant smelling yellow-orange butter.

            I have to say, so far this year we haven't had very good crab. Even some crabs purchased live on the docks in Bolinas moments after being brought up from the depths had just so-so flavor.

            1. re: SteveG

              Indeed, the crab butter (innards/liver) is usually yellow. If it was green and foul smelling, it could have been diseased.

              1. re: ML8000

                Crab butter is a catchall name for crab viscera, not a "fat deposit". In any event, the local crabs all come from the same fishing grounds and often from the same boats, so there's no way of telling what's inside until they they are opened up which, ideally, is after the point of sale. There's no sense in fingering crab sourced from Asian vendors as inferior.

        2. Honestly, I always thought green OR yellow was normal. Maybe they get green from sitting in the tank?