Store-Bought Canned Crab Meat Ranked Worst To Best

If you're familiar with how to buy, prepare, and cook crabs, you'll know the process isn't quick. It can be worth it if you live near the ocean in order to enjoy the freshest meal, but fresh crab may not be available in the off season, and not everyone lives on the coast. Fortunately, canned crabmeat is a good alternative if fresh crabs aren't available, or if you'd like to avoid the work of preparing them. In fact, crab is one of the best canned fish to keep in your pantry for these and many other reasons.

Crab may lose some flavor and aroma in the canning process, but it's still a tasty and enjoyable ingredient that can be used to make a variety of recipes from crab dips to crab soups to restaurant-quality crab cakes. Since crab is quite perishable, the canned variety will give you the convenience of preparing it when you're ready, as both regular cans and refrigerated ones have a long shelf life. Once opened, the crabmeat should be used within a couple of days. Canned crabmeat is also high in protein and is a good source for omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin B12, zinc, and selenium.

We've taken a look at some canned crabmeat products available in national grocery stores and evaluated them for criteria such as ingredients, appearance, taste, texture, and price. More information can be found in the methodology section at the end. Read on to learn more about our ranking and make choosing canned crabmeat easier the next time you're at the store.

The Geisha Fancy White Crab Meat comes from blue swimming crabs. It's sold in regular 6-ounce cans and doesn't need to be refrigerated. Besides crabmeat, the ingredients include water, sugar, salt, disodium phosphate, citric acid, sodium metabisulphite, and calcium disodium EDTA.

We were underwhelmed with the aroma of the Geisha crabmeat. More precisely, we could barely smell anything. It's good that it doesn't smell bad or overly fishy, but a little crab aroma is appreciated. The appearance is that of very small pieces. We know that is normal for white crab meat, which comes from the body of the crab, but in this case it almost looks like a paste. The crabmeat is canned in a lot of liquid and must be well-drained before use, so the final yield is about 4.25 ounces. Like the aroma, the flavor was very mild, which is not a problem in itself, but we didn't enjoy this particular flavor, and the texture was mushy. We didn't want to taste more after the initial bite.

At $3.29 a can, this was the second least expensive product. We wouldn't buy this one again, though, because it wasn't an enjoyable experience. There is another brand on this list that costs a little less and is a better budget-conscious choice. However, if we did buy this again, we would use it in dips with bold ingredients like cream cheese and cocktail sauce where the taste of the actual crab meat isn't as important.

The Bumble Bee White Crabmeat is also sold in 6-ounce shelf-stable cans. It has the same ingredients as the Geisha Fancy White Crab Meat, but they're listed in a slightly different order. Like the Geisha can, this is also white crabmeat from the body of the crab.

During the tasting we noted the aroma of this product was not pronounced. We only noticed a faint seafood smell. The appearance is typical of canned white crabmeat, with very small pieces and a white color. The crabmeat is canned in a lot of liquid, so like the Geisha product, it must be drained well. The sample we tasted wasn't bad. It had a mild flavor with no unpleasant notes. The texture was a bit wet and mushy for our taste, but overall it had an acceptable flavor and texture that we thought was in keeping with the price.

We found Bumble Bee White Crabmeat to be the most widely available at grocery stores, and this version in particular had the lowest price we found at $2.94 a can. We would buy this again, but only to use in dips or other recipes where the taste and the texture of the crabmeat isn't center stage. This Valentine's Day Gruyere and crab gougeres recipe is a rich treat featuring a crab filling sandwiched in cheesy French pastry. You can choose more expensive lump crabmeat if desired, but this white crabmeat from Bumble Bee would be an acceptable choice since the dish contains so many flavorful ingredients.

Like the previous two products, Crown Prince Fancy White-Lump Crab Meat is packaged in 6-ounce shelf-stable cans. Unlike the other two, though, this brand contains lump crabmeat, which is made up of larger, more rounded pieces from the crab's body. We were happy to see the only ingredients are lump white crabmeat, water, salt, and citric acid.

This crabmeat had a stronger, slightly fishy aroma, and we smelled it a couple times before deciding it was okay to taste. The appearance of the lump meat was of medium-sized, off-white, chunkier pieces with some smaller stringy pieces. We tasted it after draining the can, and the crabmeat was moist with a mild flavor and fishy undertones. We noticed the can included instructions to rinse the crabmeat lightly in cold water for a better flavor, so we did, and that improved the smell and flavor.

We've ranked this fourth because it had a better texture than the previous two brands, and we appreciated the lack of additional preservatives besides citric acid. We didn't rank it higher simply because the taste was neutral at best. It didn't have the signature sweeter flavor of lump crabmeat. Because of the texture, we would use this crabmeat not just in dips, but in crab cakes too (see which wine, beer, and cocktail to pair with your crab cakes), although we'd choose crab cake recipes with strong spices like Old Bay seasoning, because we didn't love the taste. However, with a price tag ranging from $9.69 to $11.99 a can, we think there are more affordable and tastier options.

Chicken of the Sea Wild Caught Premium Special Crab Meat comes in large 16-ounce (1-pound) refrigerated cans. The only ingredients are pasteurized crab meat and sodium acid pyrophosphate to preserve color. The type of crab it contains is Portunus Pelagicus, more commonly known as blue swimming crab. The unopened can has a long shelf life, about two years, as long as it's kept refrigerated (do not store it unrefrigerated). Once opened, it must be used within two days and shouldn't be frozen. Special crabmeat is white crabmeat from the body of crabs and doesn't contain leg or claw meat, and it's a higher quality than regular canned white crabmeat.

This crabmeat has a pronounced crab aroma, but it was a good smell. The appearance is off-white with medium lumpy pieces and larger stringier pieces. It did not have a small, chopped appearance. The crabmeat was moist with a mild and pleasant taste, although no special flavor stood out.

We've ranked this third because it has a good taste and texture but not as much as our top choices. The 1-pound can we purchased cost $15.99, so it carries a higher cost up front than cans of regular white crabmeat. However, if you consider that the regular 6-ounce cans only hold 4.25 ounces of drained crabmeat, this Chicken of the Sea special product is only a little more expensive per ounce (the can is not full of water like the other products).

Chicken of the Sea Wild Caught Premium Lump Crab Meat is also sold in a 16-ounce refrigerated can. It has the same two ingredients as the special variety -– pasteurized crab meat and sodium acid pyrophosphate for color retention -– but it only contains lump crabmeat. These are larger pieces of body meat and some broken pieces of jumbo lump crabmeat. Jumbo lump crabmeat comes from the two large, unbroken muscles in a crab's body that are connected to the swimming legs. The two even larger muscles are called colossal lump crabmeat and are a considered a real delicacy.

Lump crabmeat carries a higher price tag but has a sweeter and more pleasing flavor and larger pieces that are more suitable for recipes that feature minimal other ingredients so the crab can shine. We found the aroma of this crabmeat to be mild and pleasing. We saw the can contained very little water and off-white, larger chunks and thicker stringy pieces. The taste caught our attention right away. Compared to some of the other contenders, this tasted really good, with a fresh, light, sweet flavor and a moist, firm, more substantial texture. We went back for a second taste right away. Pasteurized lump crabmeat comes at a cost, and the one-pound can we purchased cost $26.99, so it's not a budget-conscious choice. Don't hide this product in dips. Use it to make crab cakes or Maryland crab soup.

The Bumble Bee Lump Crabmeat at the top of our list is sold in a regular 6-ounce can on the shelf and contains similar ingredients to the Bumble Bee White Crabmeat discussed above. The difference is this is lump crabmeat, which is apparent as soon as you open the can. While the white crabmeat ranked lower on the list looked watery and chopped up, this crabmeat sat in the can in noticeably single, round, medium-sized pieces.

The aroma was faint, but the taste was very good. The moist pieces had a sweet, full flavor we enjoyed from the first bite, and we went back for a second taste. The crabmeat pieces are packed in a lot of water, but because of their size, they can be lifted out of the liquid instead of being pressed to drain the water, thereby preserving their shape.

As far as taste, we found this variety and Chicken of the Sea's lump crabmeat equally agreeable, but we considered this one to be more accessible because it had similar qualities at a lower cost. Depending on the store, this Bumble Bee product costs about the same or a little less per ounce than the Chicken of the Sea lump crabmeat (we saw it priced between about $5.50 and $7.50 a can), but since it comes in 6-ounce cans with about 4.25 ounces of drained crabmeat, it can be purchased in smaller quantities when needed for smaller recipes or to stick to a budget. This crabmeat is perfect for crab cakes –- and don't forget the Old Bay seasoning.

We chose canned crabmeat products that are available on the shelf or in the refrigerated seafood section of national grocery stores. We didn't include crabmeat that is sold in refrigerated plastic containers. To make the tasting more fair, we excluded claw meat because it has a unique appearance that's easy to spot as well as a stronger flavor. We also left out jumbo lump and colossal lump crabmeat, which is very expensive, often costing $40 or more a pound. We focused on white, special, and lump crabmeat at a few different price points.

We conducted a blind taste test to the best of our ability to evaluate these products. We also consulted a fellow crabmeat fan to help us with the tasting and provide a second opinion. We filled small testing bowls with some crabmeat from each can and labeled each one with a letter. Since the various cans contain different types of crabmeat, sometimes we couldn't help having a general idea of what we were tasting or even know which specific can the sample came from, but we couldn't always tell.

During the tasting, we first evaluated the aroma of each sample and then looked at the appearance and size of the crabmeat pieces. We then considered the taste and texture of each product. Besides the taste tests, we looked at the kind of crab the cans contained, the ingredients, preservatives, shelf life, and price before settling on our ranking.