It's the first time to eat fresh and delicious Portunus crab. I bought it and cooked it. How can it be an empty shell?

Everyone has eaten swimming crab, seafood porridge and crab fried rice cake. Of course, the most classic is steamed swimming crab. Among these eating methods, only steamed Portunus trituberculatus has the highest quality requirement, because the Portunus trituberculatus we bought by accident is an empty shell!

Therefore, making soup and porridge is the perfect place for this empty-shell swimming crab. This way, we mainly eat the delicious taste of Portunus, but we are not sensitive to crab meat, but the problem is that they are all bought with real money. Is it easy for me to buy an empty shell?

Why are the swimming crabs we bought empty shells?

"When the west wind rises, the crab's feet itch, and it is eating crab yellow in autumn", "Picking yellow flowers with dew, boiling purple crabs with frost", "Autumn purple crabs are fat, and green ants slip late and fall down carelessly". In fact, if you need it, there are many descriptions that autumn is a good time to eat crabs, but I don't know if you have noticed that these are crabs. Portunus and hairy crabs are not the same species.

When to eat what crabs?

There is a difference in the best time for male and female hairy crabs to eat. Generally, the female crabs of Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs will be "full of yellow shells" on the tenth day of the first lunar month. At this time, the weather turns cold, and the digestive glands and ovaries of the female crab grow into crab yellow, so it is the best time to eat the female crab at this time. Open the crab shell, the crab yellow overflows and the crab smells good. Take a bite, it tastes great!

Every year, the late October of the lunar calendar is a "fat paste", and the growth rate of male crabs is slightly slower, and the fat gradually accumulates. Therefore, this is the best time to eat male crabs. The boiled crab paste is translucent, soft and delicious, and it is definitely a top enjoyment!

So hairy crabs are eaten around October of the lunar calendar, but this old method is ineffective for Portunus, because Portunus is a kind of sea crab, and its growing season is very different from what we are familiar with. If you still buy Portunus with the old thinking of hairy crabs, it's right to buy an empty shell!

When does Portunus crab eat?

Portunus trituberculatus can be bought in the southeast coast, and there are three protrusions in the center of its shell, which is the origin of its name. Portunus trituberculatus is relatively large, with the heaviest weight reaching1000g, and the common weight is about 400g. Portunus trituberculatus is also a kind of euryhaline creature, its suitable growth salinity is 10-35‰, and its optimum salinity is 25-30‰, which means that if you throw a few live crabs into Qinghai Lake (salinity is 12.5‰), you can live well!

However, the water temperature in Qinghai Lake is very low in winter, and the temperature that Portunus trituberculatus can adapt to is between 17-28 degrees Celsius. If it reaches MINUS 1.5 degrees Celsius, it will freeze to death visually!

There are two seasons for eating Portunus. The first season is around May Day, and the second season is around Mid-Autumn Festival. Swimming crabs are fattest in both seasons, and male crabs are fattest in Mid-Autumn Festival. Many friends think that the yellow color of female Portunus is sticky and tasteless, and the white paste of male crab is delicious, so they eat male crab paste around the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the female crab is good in late autumn!

Male crab pointed triangle, female crab round triangle

It must be reminded that friends in Ningbo and Shanghai had better eat "salt water crab". After opening, the crab yellow inside tastes like a drop of leverage, so don't miss it for friends who are "salt water crab" at this time!

Salted crab

Why is the swimming crab bought at this time still an empty shell?

Of course, we say that the swimming crab in this season is good as a whole, and it is normal for swimming crabs in other seasons to have no meat, so why is the most suitable season for eating empty shells? This should be considered from the sales link of crabs!

It takes at least one or two days, and more than ten days, from the time the swimming crab is caught from the farm to the time the consumer buys it home. During this period, in order to ensure the quality of crabs, swimming crabs are no longer fed, so at this time, the stocks in crabs are exhausted. The longer the time, the more nutrients are consumed. It is normal to leave an empty shell in the end. If you don't die, you deserve everyone

There is another problem that must be considered: sea crystal.

From the coast to the inland, swimming crabs must be transported by sea water if they want to survive, but the question is where does so much sea water come from? So the sea crystal was born, which is the concentration of minerals in the ocean. If it is dissolved in fresh water in a certain proportion, it will become seawater, in which marine animals can continue to live. Coupled with an aerator, seafood can live for a long time!

Similar to salt, it is an industrial product and cannot be eaten.

Of course, live swimming crabs will be transported at a low temperature of 3-7 degrees Celsius. You can add some ice, but not too much, or you will freeze to death easily. However, it will take a long time to sell after arriving at the destination, and it can't be stored in the cold storage, so it needs seawater prepared by sea crystal for temporary cultivation!

In this environment, oxygen must be increased, because the density is too high, crabs will overlap, exercise consumption will increase, and they can't eat, so the nutrients stored in the body will be consumed quickly, and the meat will be dry and tasteless!

How to choose?

Choose a swimming crab with a blue hard back, which is basically soft in water, and see if you can see anything red and yellow at the tip of the crab shell. Generally, this yellow color is more suitable for the female crab, and the male crab depends on his weight (the male crab has a pointed triangle in the abdomen and the female crab has a full triangle). Pull the crab's foot to check the weight and see if it feels good! Of course, the possibility of cheap swimming crab shells is higher, and expensive ones are not excluded!

If you still can't choose, ask the aunt next door. Their experience is very rich!