Keeping crabs fresh for Christmas Day

[seasponge]

Hi all,

As the blue swimmers are hotting up this time of year, i had the idea of being able to go out and catch a big feed for the family for Christmas Day. My question is, how long can they be kept for prior to eating, and what's the best way to keep em. I'd  be looking at going out an hopefully catching them on Saturday 23 and keeping till Christmas Day.

Options I can see are; 

1. Boil them straight away and keep in fridge till Christmas Day (3 days)
2. Boil them straight away and put in freezer and thaw out on Christmas Day
3. Freeze them green, and thaw and cook on Christmas Day.

 

Option 1 is my preferred, but not sure how long they would keep like that. 

Any thoughts?

[bluefin840]

number 1 for sure Commerial guys will keep to 7 days planing on the some thing merry Christmas Day PS KEEP ON LOTS OF ICE IT ONLY 3 DAYS

 

Edited December 11, 2017 by bluefin840

[Scratchie]

I’ll be following this thread too! I had the same idea but might freeze for longer. Look forward to advice raiders! 

Cheers scratchie!!! 

[Jewhunter]

I easily keep muddies alive for 3-4 days in the shade with a damp hessian bag or some mangrove leaves & branches if I couldn't be bothered tying them to settle them down. Not sure about blueys though. I would think it can't be too hard to keep them kicking until a Xmas eve cook up.

[blaxland]

Well according to sydney fish markets blue swimmers are not sold live because its hard to keep them alive. They are sold cooked or raw can be stored up to 3 days in the fridge in glag wrap or plastic container and 1 month frozen. I hope I have a storage problem as I dont know where to catch them have caught one near chinamans beach but that area is seasonal restricted and eerybody tells me the hawksbury is dead cause of commercial fishers any tips?

 

[geshy]

19 minutes ago, blaxland said:

Well according to sydney fish markets blue swimmers are not sold live because its hard to keep them alive. They are sold cooked or raw can be stored up to 3 days in the fridge in glag wrap or plastic container and 1 month frozen. I hope I have a storage problem as I dont know where to catch them have caught one near chinamans beach but that area is seasonal restricted and eerybody tells me the hawksbury is dead cause of commercial fishers any tips?

 

Hawksbury isn’t dead plenty of blue swimmers in there mate

[blaxland]

19 minutes ago, geshy said:

Hawksbury isn’t dead plenty of blue swimmers in there mate

If I launch from Akuna where would be my best chance? I would use witches hats

[rickmarlin62]

we  cook them.cool them..break them apart and clean using salt water..then freeze in Tupperware containers..rick

[seasponge]

Thanks for the replies. If I do end up getting out there, and I do end up catching a decent feed (2 big ifs!), I reckon I'll go with option 1 - cook immediately and just keep in the fridge for a few days. 

 

 

[Captain Spanner]

If you are going to eat them cooked cold anyway then i would cook them straight away, let them cool/let steam and drips out, then wrap them in in glad wrap so air/water can't get at them. Eskies stay alot colder than the fridge which is regulated at about 4 degrees. This is what i would do because i have good eskies and a freezer with uncountable bottles. I would put them in a good esky that is in a cool, permanently shady spot and lock it if people are going to want to keep opening the lid and look at them. I would fill the bottom half of the esky with frozen bottles (at least a couple of hours before the crabs are going in), put the crabs in, fill the rest of the esky with frozen bottles and close the lid. I know that my esky can go the distance for 3 days with this type of application so its ok. If you are going to use ice you want to have the crabs on some type of bridge, frozen bottles, upside down dish rack etc. to keep them out of the water when the ice has melted. I know some guys leave the bung of the esky out so the water can drip out and keep topping the esky up with bags of ice each day so that way the crabs are buried in the ice and there is much less risk of them ending up in water. Once again they should be up off the floor of the esky.

Edited December 12, 2017 by Captain Spanner

[Yowie]

 I cook mine the same day of catching, and they will keep in the fridge for up to 4 days.

2 days is not a problem to keep them fresh, no need to freeze so long as the fridge is cold.

[Koalaboi]

A mate and I had the same issue some years ago. We filled a tub wit salt water and using an aerator kept the blue swimmers alive till Christmas day when we cooked them.

I can't recall if any died but, I think most did well.

 

KB

[Berleyguts]

On 12/12/2017 at 6:04 PM, Captain Spanner said:

If you are going to use ice you want to have the crabs on some type of bridge, frozen bottles, upside down dish rack etc. to keep them out of the water when the ice has melted. I know some guys leave the bung of the esky out so the water can drip out and keep topping the esky up with bags of ice each day so that way the crabs are buried in the ice and there is much less risk of them ending up in water. Once again they should be up off the floor of the esky.

What if they’re in a seawater ice slurry?

[Captain Spanner]

9 hours ago, Berleyguts said:

What if they’re in a seawater ice slurry?

Im not an authority on this sorry, I've never kept them in a slurry for that long but i imagine it would want to be straight sea water and not diluted with melted freshwater ice. Do we have any pro guys on here that can shed some light? You could probably go a crab depth of sea water in the bottom and bombard it with frozen bottles to keep the temp down. I just get worried that the water will eventually get into the meat if it is soaking in it.