Crab: A Fishmonger's Guide

What Is Crab?

The crab on our counter is the brown crab, Cancer pagurus, the big, oval, reddish-brown crab that crawls the seabed all along the Dorset coast. It’s the classic British crab: a pair of heavy black-tipped claws full of sweet white meat, and a broad body carrying the rich brown meat that crab-lovers prize most.

Brown crab is landed in pots: baited traps dropped on the seabed and hauled the next day. It’s about as low-impact and sustainable as fishing gets, and it’s the bread and butter of the small day-boats working out of Poole and the surrounding harbours.

Where Our Crab Comes From

Our brown crab is caught by our local pot fishermen. Dorset’s rocky and mixed seabed is perfect crab ground, and our crab comes in from boats working those grounds, often landed and on the counter within a day. Pot-caught means selective: undersized crabs and egg-carrying hens go back, so the fishery keeps replenishing itself.

We sell crab whole and cooked, and we sell prepared dressed crab and crabmeat, all hand-picked in house and available on our counter.

The Best Time to Buy Crab

Crab is available all year round, and at its best from September through to March. Crab moult (they shed their shells to grow) and a freshly-moulted crab is light and most likely watery inside. That moult happens over the summer, which is why a summer crab wants picking carefully. By early autumn the new shells have hardened and the crab has filled out, so the meat is heavy, sweet and at its best.

Winter crab is very good too, though it can land in smaller quantities: unpredictable weather keeps the boats in, so it is a question of how much comes ashore rather than how good it is when it does.

How To Cook Crab

Crab is sold ready-cooked, so you’re really preparing rather than cooking.

Dressed crab: The classic. Pick the white meat from the claws and legs, blend the brown meat with a little lemon and mustard or breadcrumbs, and arrange both back in the cleaned shell. Serve with brown bread, butter, and lemon.

Picked, in everything: Fresh white crab meat needs almost nothing. Pile it on toast, fold it through pasta with chilli and lemon, or stir it into a salad. The less you do, the better.

Whole, to share: A whole cooked crab with crackers, picks, mayonnaise, and good bread is a brilliant, hands-on summer lunch.

Buying Tips From The Counter

1. Heavy is good. A full crab feels surprisingly heavy. A light one is half water. Leave it.
2. Look for the shell popping up. If the shell has lifted, the meat pushed it up during cooking, so that crab is guaranteed to be full of meat. It is the single most reliable sign there is.
3. Hard shell, intact claws. Soft or damaged shells mean a poor crab.
4. Cock or hen? Cock crabs (big claws) give more white meat; hen crabs give more brown. Pick for what you’re cooking.
5. Dressed crab, ready to go. We sell prepared dressed crab off the counter: picked, dressed and back in the shell, so all you have to do is eat it.

Crab From Parkstone Fisheries

When local pots are landing, we have Dorset brown crab on the counter, whole and cooked, alongside our prepared dressed crab and hand-picked white crab meat. Ask Steve what’s just come in, or call ahead. Pair it with our lobster for a proper shellfish feast. Free delivery across all BH postcodes, £40 minimum order.