Freezing Live Crabs is a Terrible Idea. Here’s Why

After a long day of crabbing, It can be easy to think to throw your freshly-caught crabs in the freezer until you’re ready to cook them will do the trick. Let me tell you, this is a terrible way to preserve your crabs. 

You should never freeze live crabs. Live crabs stored in temperatures below 32° Fahrenheit will quickly perish. Any bacteria or undigested food within the crab’s insides will cause its meat to rot-even in freezing temperatures.  To be safe, all crabs should be cooked and cleaned before freezing. 

To store your crabs for long periods of time, you’re going to need to do some preparations. In fact, you have a few options when it comes to freezing crabs. Each one is sure to keep your recently-caught crabs fresh for long periods of time. Let’s dive into how you should correctly store your crabs. 

Why Freezing Live Crabs is a Bad Idea

Before I explain how to properly freeze crabs, I want to elaborate on why freezing live crabs is a bad idea.

Crabs are pretty hardy species that can survive in very chilly temperatures. Dungeness crabs can survive freezing waters in Alaska, so why wouldn’t they stay fresh in your freezer? (California Dept. of Fish and Game, 1994).

The problem with freezers is that the dry, ice-cold temperatures freezes the moisture in the crab’s gills. This causes the live crabs to suffocate after being stored in a freezer. 

Another reason why crabs die in a freezer is because of the lack of fresh air. This is a big killer for crabs in a refrigerator (Which also is a bad idea, see my article Refrigerating Blue Crabs: What You Should Know for more information). 

It’s common knowledge that you should NEVER cook a dead crab. Not only is it a health hazard, but the quality of the crab meat significantly decreases once the crab dies. The longer it’s dead before being cooked, the worse the crab meat is going to taste and look. 

If you’ve eaten crabs out before, I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. If the crab meat seems stale or has a funky taste to it, the crab probably died before being thrown in the pot. Why is that?

Well, when a crab dies, unwanted bacterial growth starts to occur. Crabs are not the cleanest creatures. Because of their algae and rotting animal diet, they tend to harbor lots of grime and bacteria.  

When you put crabs in the freezer, all of that is still there. In fact, it doesn’t go away until you cook the crab, which kills the bacteria deeming the crab safe to eat. A live crab left in the freezer will quickly die, then become infested with rapid bacterial growth. 

It’s safe to say that freezers are not the way to go when it comes to storing crabs for later. Let’s talk about the right way to keep your crabs fresh. 

What Should You Do About Your Live Crabs? 

I’m going to try to put myself in your shoes. If I were to have the question, “Can I freeze live crabs?” I either picked up or caught some crabs and need to keep them fresh. There are many ways to accomplish this, you just need to know how long you need your crabs to stay fresh. 

You have a few options: 

• Keep them in a Bushel Basket (Crabs will live 1 day) 
• Refrigerate them (Crabs will live 1-2 days)
• Cook or clean them and freeze (Crabs will last for months) 

If you’re storing crabs for long periods of time (I’m talking months), you need to freeze your crabs. If you’re on the opposite side of the spectrum and need to keep your crabs alive for a day or two, check out my article Refrigerating Live Crabs: What You Should Know. 

As I mentioned before, you shouldn’t freeze live crabs. By doing so you’re risking the high possibility of the meat going bad, or guarantee of it lowering in quality. What good is a crab if it tastes like a fishy lump of meat?

There’s a lot of ways to go wrong with freezing your crabs. Let’s get into how to freeze your crabs and actually keep them fresh. 

Freezing Crabs The Right Way

When freezing crabs, you have three ways to go about it: 

1. Pick the crabs & freeze the meat (Meat lasts for 3-6 months).

It seems simple enough, and it is. A nice vacuum sealer will do the trick and keep your crab meat nice and sweet. The only issue I’ve had with this is that crab meat stored in the freezer will get stringy. The flavor is adequate, but it’s nothing compared to the texture and flavor of fresh-caught crabs. From my experience, crab meat stored for months like this goes best in soups. 

To vacuum seal your crab meat, pick the crab and place all of the meat in a vacuum-seal bag. Before you seal the bag, place it in the freezer for a little bit to firm it up. Next, pat down the meat with a paper towel to soak up the juices. Now you’re ready to vacuum seal it. Markdown the date and it will last in your freezer for months. 

2. Cook the crabs & freeze them whole (Meat lasts for less than 3 months).

If you want to skip picking the crab, keep it in its shell. I’ve heard that this preserves the sweet flavor and texture of the meat. Just make sure that you steam or boil your crabs for 10-20 minutes with water to kill any bacteria inside of the crab. This will keep the meat fresh for months! 

It’s a simple task. Just wrap each crab in paper towels then vacuum seal them. The paper towels will prevent the pointy shell from picturing the bags. 

3. Cook, clean, and freeze the crabs in that order (Meat lasts for 3 months).

Lastly, you can cook and clean the crab before storing it. It’s the same as the last method, but instead of storing the crab with its shell, remove it and wash out the guts leftover. This will make sure your crab meat stays fresh. If you’re someone who likes the crab’s ‘mustard,’ you may have to go with option two. 

I vacuum freeze my crab meat and whole crabs. using the GERYON Vacuum Sealer (Amazon Link). It works great and after going through a few vacuum sealers in my time, this is by far my favorite. [Full disclosure: I earn an affiliate commission if you purchase through the Amazon link.]