Crab Types & Grades Of Crab Meat

• Page 1: Overview
• Page 2: Grades Of Crab Meat
• Page 3: Crab Glossary-Atlantic Ocean Crabs
• Page 4: Crab Glossary-Pacific Ocean Crabs
• Page 5: Crab Glossary-Asian & European Crabs
• Page 6: What To Look For In Canned Crab Meat
• Page 6: The Book About Crab

Jumbo Lump or Lump Crab Meat

Jumbo Lump comes from the pair of large muscles that drive the crab's swimming legs. With meticulous care and skill these lumps can be removed intact, resulting in the prized whole Jumbo Lump with its incomparable elegance and visual appeal. Grades identified simply as Lump are from smaller crab varieties.

Use Jumbo Lump when you want to display beautiful white meat:

• Crab cocktails
• Solid-meat crab cakes
• Dishes like Crab Louis (lumps of crab meat and hard boiled eggs on Boston lettuce, with a variation of Russian dressing) and Crab Imperial (a baked dish combining crab with mayonnaise or a sherried white sauce, spooned into scallop shells, sprinkled with Parmesan cheese or bread crumbs and browned).

Lump or Backfin Lump Crab Meat

Lump or Backfin is the preferred grade for many traditional crab dishes. It has the same fine flavor and texture of Jumbo Lump, but is in slightly smaller pieces. It has the same caloric value as Jumbo Lump. Some companies call this grade Lump, some Backfin, and some Backfin Lump. The reason is that many packers include a large percentage of White Crab Meat (body meat—see below) in cans labeled Backfin. If you purchase a can labeled Lump, it will be all lump meat—just not Jumbo Lump.  

Use Lump or Backfin when you want beautiful white crab but don’t need jumbo lumps, for example, in:

• Crab Benedict (Eggs Benedict
  with crab instead of ham)
• Gazpacho (add a mound to the) center of the bowl)
• Pasta (add to a Spaghetti) Carbonara instead of bacon, add a cup to Fettuccini all’Amatriciana)
• Risotto

White Crab Meat

White crab meat is ideal for crab cake recipes that have multiple ingredients (bread crumbs, vegetables), mixed with mayonnaise and most crab recipes where the size and shape of the crab flake becomes indistinguishable from the rest of the ingredients.

Special White crab meat is a more economical alternative for:

• Appetizers
• Bisques and chowders
• Omelets
• Pizza
• Sandwiches and salads
• Stuffed tomatoes

Claw Crab Meat

Claw Crab meat is the “dark meat” of the crab. The reddish-brown claw and leg meat is actually more flavorful than the white meat, and is preferred by many who like the more robust flavor and appreciate the lower price. Claw meat also stands up to bolder seasonings. Some people mix it with Backfin Lump for added elegance, while keeping the overall price down.

Try claw meat—if you like the flavor, you may have an economical alternative and a reason to enjoy crab more often! You can use it in any preparation, but we enjoyed it in:

• Cheese melts (try a topping of Jarlsberg)
• Crab tacos
• Cioppino (a hearty fish stew)