Can You Eat Sand Crabs and How do You Catch Them?

The world is filled with many animals and potential meals that you may not realize people eat. For example, sand crabs are very common creatures that few people would probably think about eating. But can you eat sand crabs, or should you bother trying? Here’s what you need to know about this unique culinary option, including how you can catch and eat sand crabs with various recipes.

What are Sand Crabs?

Sand crabs are known by many names, including sand fleas and even mole crabs. They are officially called Emerita, and they are very small crabs that use a small antenna to filter-feed through various foods, like plankton and detritus. They typically live just beneath the sand surface on many beaches, burrowing deep into the sand to find food and avoid the mouths of hungry predators.

In fact, here’s a fun fact: when you’re on a beach, and you see bubbles popping up throughout the sand, that’s probably a sand crab digging deeper! They may live not just on the beach but far underwater to avoid predators. They are commonly found throughout most parts of the world and are not considered endangered or even threatened due to their high reproduction rate and sturdy survival skills.

Sand crabs typically grow to be no more than one inch long if they are a female. Female sand crabs typically need to be larger to not only hold young but to fend off advances from multiple male sand crabs. The males of this species are typically about one-half inch long or so. Note that they have a hard exoskeleton that the female lacks, which makes her larger size even more important for defense.

Fishers often use sand crabs as bait for larger fish, while some birds (like seagulls) may eat them when found on the beach. But can you eat sand crabs as a person? Yes, but would you want to eat one? Let’s take a deeper look at the sand crab’s edibility to give you a better idea of its suitability for your cuisine preferences. You might be surprised to learn that these creatures are enjoyed in many parts of the world!

Can You Eat Sand Crabs?

Here’s the thing about eating sand crabs: the challenge isn’t that they lack flavor or interesting adaptability to many cuisine types. The trouble here is that sand crabs are very small! As a result, you will need to catch and prepare many of them to get a great meal. You’re also not likely to find sand crabs at your local supermarket, meaning you’ll have to catch them from a clean and safe beach.

So, can you eat sand crabs? Absolutely! But you’ll have to do a little work to enjoy them. You also have to ensure that you take them from a clean beach with no potential for sewer runoff. That’s because these tiny crabs may easily contaminate this runoff and be very unsafe to eat. When found on a clean beach, sand crabs are not only quite edible but can be very good!

Sand Crab Flavor Profile

People who’ve eaten and prepared sand crab claim that they have a medium to a firm texture you can easily soften up through various cooking processes, such as slow cooking. Their overall flavor is rather sweet and subtle and not at all excessively fishy. They are best cooked by either boiling, steaming, grilling, or barbecuing. You can use just about any crab recipe with this species to get a great meal.

Sand crabs can even pair well with various types of wines and liquors! For example, sparkling white wine or Riesling should go very well with this meat. You may also find gin and other light liquors taste nice when enjoyed with sand crabs. Cooking sand crabs with wine is a popular option, and you can use something like a Sauvignon Blanc to bring out its overall taste and flavor more subtly.

When cooking sand crabs, you’ll need to prepare several to get a usable meal. A dozen or more can make for a suitable dining option for most people, as they’ll give you more than enough meat to eat. They provide a nice low-fat alternative to shrimp or similar seafood types. Though they don’t taste much like shrimp, they have a similar protein level and overall texture.

How Do You Catch Sand Crabs?

If you want to eat sand crabs, it is important to know how to catch them in your area. Thankfully, sand crabs are a very common species and shouldn’t be too hard to find. However, they’re very fast and small creatures that elude capture very easily and can cause you annoyance if you aren’t careful. The following steps should make this process easier and help you prepare a delicious sand crab meal:

• Search the Appropriate Habitat – Sand crabs can be found in sandy and silty areas along surf beaches near lakes and oceans. They typically bury themselves under the sand but often scurry across it to find new places to live. Pay attention to bubbles on the sand surface to identify potential sand crab dens. You may have to dig in these areas to find them or scoop them up using various catching options.
• Scoop Them Using Nets – Don’t try to grab sand crabs with your fingers while hunting for them. While they aren’t likely to hurt you if they attack, they’re too small to grab easily. Instead, you should have a large net that you can sue to scoop them up in a net. You can also scoop them up from the bottom of a lake or ocean bed using a boat net that scrapes the sandy bottom to catch these crabs.
• Handling and Cleaning Them Properly – When handling sand crabs, make sure that you wear gloves or use tongs or pliers. They do have claws and can hurt you if they pinch. While these claws aren’t likely to cause a serious cut, it may get infected and cause problems. Thick fishing gloves are a great option here. Once collected, wash them out in cool water to get rid of dirt and other contaminants.
• Sorting Through the Available Crabs – While you can eat any sand crab, it is usually best to find the large females and to put the males back in the lake. Females provide not only the most meat for your dining pleasure but also have more tender meat than males. Males also have more rigid shells that make them more annoying to prepare, making females the far easier food option.

You may have to catch many, many sand crabs before you have enough to make a meal. For example, when you scoop the sand where sand crabs live, you will probably get at least five per scoop or more. Out of these five, you may have about two or three females suitable to eat. You’ll need at least 10-12 or so per person to make a suitable meal. Working with multiple people is a good step here.

How to Prepare and Cook Sand Crabs

Now that you know the answer to the question “can you eat sand crabs?” it is important to know how to prepare and cook these creatures. You cannot eat these creatures raw because they may have various parasites or bacteria in their bodies. Instead, it is essential to remove their innards and cook them to a specific temperature to ensure that you kill all parasites and bacteria in their bodies.

Depending on the type of food you cook, the proper temperature can vary. The federal Food Safety organization suggests cooking shrimp, lobster, crab, or scallops until the flesh is pearly or white and opaque. The internal temperature will typically be above 145 degrees Fahrenheit, with higher temperatures more fully killing parasites and bacteria. Beyond hitting the proper temperature, follow these steps to cook your sand crabs safely:

1. Rinse the soft-shelled female crabs in warm water and shake them slightly to dislodge any debris
2. Break off their tails and squeeze their bodies to remove their intestines and rinse to remove the innards
3. Batter them in frying powder and let them fully dry before cooking in the pan
4. Boil hot oil in a pan and place the crabs in the pan once they have fully dried
5. Cook them in the oil until they are tender and done on one slide
6. Flip the crabs to cook them on the other side and serve when fully cooked
7. Alternate method: skip the batter and boil them for 20 minutes in a large pot

After you’ve cooked the sand crabs in this way, you can use them in many different recipes. For example, you can scatter them on a bed of lettuce and combine with carrots, broccoli, and other veggies to create a delicious salad. You can also put them on a bed of rice or serve in a pita to create multiple dish types. Any recipe that uses crabs can be adapted to use sand crabs in this way.