The Mistake Everyone Makes With Canned Crab Meat

Canned crab meat is a quick and easy go-to when you don't have the time, energy, or money to deal with hacking at fresh crab to get the meat yourself. This list of store-bought canned crab meat ranked worst to best can help you decide which one to pick, but there's one major mistake that you want to swerve no matter what brand of canned crab you try. That mistake is not soaking or rinsing your meat before using it.

Rinsing your crab meat with water gets rid of the extra salt and preservatives that most canned meats have. At the same time, it enhances the actual crab flavor, making it more pronounced in any dish you use it in. The milk bath, on the other hand, is a great way of cutting down any fishy odor that you may get with your canned meat. It's totally normal for canned seafood to have this briny, fishy smell, so you don't have to worry about it being bad. Still, it doesn't make for a very appetizing addition to your crab, so if you have the time, take this one small step to level your crab meat up.

So, how exactly do you go about rinsing and soaking your crab meat properly? First, drain all the liquid that's packed inside the can of crab meat. Then, you want to rinse your crab meat with plain water. You can do this easily by placing your canned crab meat in a wire mesh and letting water run over it, or by placing it in a bowl with water, gently stirring, and then draining the liquid. For a milk bath, just submerge your crab into milk, cover the bowl, and refrigerate for around 20 minutes. When straining the milk off, be sure to press the crab meat gently against the sieve so you don't break it but get as much of the excess moisture out as possible. You want to be gentle with the meat in general since crab shreds pretty easily, so always use a delicate touch no matter how you prep your meat.

Once you have your rinsed and soaked crab meat, you can use it any way you'd use fresh crab meat, really. Making fritters is the best way to cook low quality crab meat according to an expert, but don't be afraid to use it in pastas, salads, and more. Canned crab meat even makes for a mean crab cake; just don't forget to take steps to prevent your crab cakes from falling apart while cooking. After seeing what a difference a quick rinse and soak can make, you'll be tossing canned crab meat into all that and then some.