where to buy blue lump crab meat???

I am looking to buy some blue lump crab meat to make a stuffed mushroom reciepe. I don't want to buy blue crabs and do it myself since it is so tedious. Where is a good place to buy blue lump crab meat?

Costco sells Phillips-branded lump crab meat in a can in the coldcase section from Asian crabs at a fairly decent price ~$13+/lb IIRC. I know you asked for blue crab, but I can't recall seeing lump blue crab for sale anywhere.

Hi,

While it is not too difficult to obtain live blue crabs at Asian markets in this area. If and when you locate blue crab lump, then you may want to refer to my experience to appreciate yield and cost.

Regards,

thanks for the replies. i don't need a lot, i was thinking costco but it is a lot of crab meat. i am sure i can find ways to use it...make crab cakes and freeze them, or make soup.

What's the deal with the crab in a can? is it partially preserved? I once heard that the canned stuff can last 30 days before it spoils because it is. I guess i could just google and find out...

I have bought crab meat at Wild Oats twice now, both with good results. Once it was in a can near the bacon and marked 'pasteurized' - it was excellent. Very sweet and fell apart in shreds. The second time was frozen because they were out of the cans - I bought two containers. One was lump and the other was claw meat - there was an 11$ price difference. I wanted to see how the meats varied and found they were both just as good & pretty much interchangeable.

The day after I did this, I also saw the pasteurized cans at Trader Joes for about 9$.

I don't think any of this is blue crab meat, but for making things like stuffed mushrooms, any of these kinds listed above would work.

I made crab and corn chowder, and a pasta with lemon/butter/crab on it from the various ones listed above.

The canned crab is indeed blue crab, just not the blue crab that occurs on the east coast. Canned crab is an indonesian swimming species that is cooked, pasteurized, and then canned.

from a culinary standpoint the meat is identical to the east coast crab, although some flavor IS lost in the pasteurization process, or maybe the canning process - fresh crabmeat can be a little better, but in most dishes the nuance is lost. Fresh crab quality is also highly variable, some batches being MUCH better than others...I would not personally buy fresh blue crab meat, it just isn't worth the price difference over the canned product.

If properly refrigerated, canned crab will be good for at least 12 months. All cans are stamped with an expiration date on the bottom.

Erik.

Hi,

We saw crab in plastic containers in the fish department at H-Mart selling for $8.99. No idea what type of crab they had.

nr706 bought frozen oysters there, without the shell, for less than $3.

H-Mart
Oakton @ Waukegan Roads
Niles, IL

Regards,

Although, I've never tasted the frozen oysters sold at H-mart, in general frozen Korean-packaged oysters are exceedingly small and fishy... they do OK in jigae's and maybe in a scallion pancake (although that's a stretch), but I've never had good experiences with them in other dishes despite the inexpensive cost.

I had been thinking about making some of the recipes from the Prairie Avenue Cookbook, which has a chapter on oystermainia - apparently oysters were all the rage in Chicago in the 2nd half of the 19th century. Most of the recipes called for fresh oysters. I don't know this for a fact, but I'm guessing that the fresh oysters available in Chicago in the late 1880s weren't all that pristine, so I thought that substituting frozen Korean oysters (which look like they average about 1.5" x .75") might not be too much of a stretch. (And who would know, anyway?)

At any rate, at $2.49 for 8 oz. it's something I can play with for not that much money.

And it's a real experience to go through a big, diverse place like H-Mart when the traffic in the aisles doesn't resemble the Kennedy at rush hour, with knowledgable folks like the night's subset of Burt's Pizza refugees.

Jay K wrote:Although, I've never tasted the frozen oysters sold at H-mart, in general frozen Korean-packaged oysters are exceedingly small and fishy... they do OK in jigae's and maybe in a scallion pancake (although that's a stretch), but I've never had good experiences with them in other dishes despite the inexpensive cost.

Well, then, you've got me curious: do the Korean restaurants in Chicago use fresh or frozen oysters for their gool pa jun (oyster pancakes) and haemul pa jun (seafood pancakes)?

And, in any event, do you have any favourites hereabouts?

E.M.

Erik M,

In all honesty, I can't speak with any authority about the Chicago Korean restaurants and their use of frozen vs fresh oysters in their pajun; We tend to make most of our Korean food at home (and use fresh oysters of course). I've tried to "defrost" the frozen before (seduced by the inexpensive cost) in order to saute in ginger & scallion (Chinese), which resulted in a horrible wet fishy mess as well as in pajun. I've been to Korean restaurants in other cities where, depending on the "grade" of the restaurant, utilized fresh vs frozen... I am certain frozen is used in the pajun quite often - as is the frozen seafood mix which is very ubiquitous in the haemul pajun, jigaes and jampong. Even the stir-fried spicy baby octopus (and the more typical large octopus tentacles) which is so popular these days starts out frozen. H-mart does sell a plastic container in the "fresh" seafood dept of shucked small-size oysters. The frozen oysters work OK in the soup dishes since oysters will be "overcooked" in these dishes anyways. I usually buy shucked oysters at the Japanese markets in town - of course you'll pay a pretty penny at $14+/lb.

On another note, I'm beginning to appreciate purchasing my seafood ingredients more and more in their whole un-altered state; One case in point is the raw whole squids (including organs, eyeballs, sucker teeth and ink sack) that I bought at H-mart. In the past, I'd utilized frozen calamari rings or cleaned heads sold in most Asian (Chinese) markets. The squid tasted much better (of course) AND owing a little to my newly developing paranoi about processed seafoods from China and SE Asia (their techniques at times can be... um... not quite FDA approved or ethical - opening up a can of worms here now...) made me feel safer about eating them.

Another SIDE note, I lamented throwing away the ink sacks when cleaning the squid, but I really didn't quite know what to cook with them. I was simply grilling them whole (Japanese), and in the past I've had them where you grill them w/ the ink sac and mix the ink with soy to make the dipping sauce, but I didn't know if I had to have REALLY fresh squid (like right out of the ocean that day) to do this, and I've never made squid ink pasta...

Jay K wrote:The frozen oysters work OK in the soup dishes since oysters will be "overcooked" in these dishes anyways.

Like miyuk kook (seaweed and oyster soup)? That's one thing that I never quite understood: are the oysters indeed supposed to be cooked so thoroughly, and do Koreans best enjoy them that way? Any direction that I have ever found for the preparation of this sort of soup (or stew) involves sauteeing/stir-frying the oysters first, then simmering them for several more minutes. Me, I've never been happy with the results--whether in the home or in a restaurant--but I'd imagine that it's a cultural thing.

At any rate, thank you for the lengthy reply and all of the tips.

E.M.

Since my beloved Isaacson & Stein has closed, I'm looking for a place to buy 1lb lump crab in cans that is high quality and good value. I'm in Wicker Park/Bucktown, but willing to travel reasonable distances for said product. Any suggestions?

rtb178 wrote:Since my beloved Isaacson & Stein has closed, I'm looking for a place to buy 1lb lump crab in cans that is high quality and good value. I'm in Wicker Park/Bucktown, but willing to travel reasonable distances for said product. Any suggestions?

I've always had success with this at Whole Foods but it has been a while.

=R=

I've also seen it at Whole Foods. I'm also pretty sure that Dirks and/or The Fish Guy will have it. I'd call and they can tell you what they have and whether it meets your criteria.

Dirk's Fish and Gourmet Shop
2070 N. Clybourn Ave., Chicago, Il
http://www.dirksfish.com/
(773) 404-3475

The Fish Guy
4423 N. Elston Ave. Chicago, IL 60630
http://fishguy.com/
(773) 283-7400

I've even seen it from time to time at Jewel - but you have to read labels very carefully, I'll assume you're speaking of blue crab (Atlantic) and not blue swimming crab.

I bought some jumbo lumb at Marianos.
I don't know if it was blue crab.
The brand was chicken of the sea, and the containers were sealed clear plastic so you could see what was inside.
The ones I bought had a metal lid, like a soup lid that peeled off.
The quality was good and they made awesome crabcakes on NYE.
They also carried other types that were less $$ claw, and backfin ?
There were a total of maybe 4 other types of crabmeat available in the same type of container. All were refrigerated, not frozen.

Decidedly off-topic, but: Is this thread a contender {...Top 10? } for oldest thread revived?

I bought a plastic tub chicken of the sea brand at Costco and it was just ok. Perhaps I got an older can.

Hi,

The Bedford Park Costco is intended for food service people. It has a broad range of kitchen equipment as well as food and paper goods.

They offer one-pound cans of claw crab meat for $7.99. The price is what draws my attention, though I have yet to buy one to find out.

This place is totally worth a slow pace walkabout, because there is a lot to see. They had a full Parmesan wheel available to buy as well as chunks.

In the kitchen equipment, they offer a gyros or El Pasteur vertical rotisserie (or whatever it may be called). They had quarter sheet pans for $3.98, which are great for small batches.


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