When it comes to cooking crab dishes, various grades of crab meat are available. Knowing the difference between the grades can be helpful when purchasing crab meat for a quality crab-based dish filled with flavor.
When it comes to cooking crab dishes, various grades of crab meat are available. Knowing the difference between the grades can be helpful when purchasing crab meat or cooking a recipe fit for a particular grade, ensuring that you get the best use out of your purchase and can cook a quality crab-based dish filled with flavor. Listed below are five grades of crab meat and how they can be used.
Jumbo Lump
Jumbo lump crab meat is a luxury crab meat from a crab’s swimmer fins and is well-known for its size, bright white color, and exquisite taste. It’s ideal crab meat to serve at parties and special events, pairing well with various upscale cuisines, such as crab cock tails.
Lump
Lump crab meat typically comes from the crab’s body consisting of broken pieces of jumbo lump crab meat mixed with special grade crab meat. Lump crab meat has a firm texture and medium taste, making it a great choice for various dishes, including crab cakes, dips, salads, and more.
Backfin
Backfin crab meat consists of lump crabmeat and other pieces of white meat from a crab’s body broken into pieces and blended together. It’s a great option for making crab cakes, salads, quesadillas, wraps, soups, pasta, and crab balls.
Special
Special grade crab meat is similar to backfin consisting of small pieces of white crabmeat taken from a crab’s body cavity. Special grade crab meat goes well in dishes with color and delicate flavors such as dips, bisques, salads, and even omelets.
Claw
Like its name, claw crab meat comes from a crab’s claws. It consists of color darker than lump and backfin crab meat with a strong flavor. Claw meat is typically used in dishes with heavy sauces such as appetizers, dips, and soups that enhance crabs’ flavor making it stand out amongst other flavors.
COSTAS INN IS YOUR SEAFOOD DESTINATION FOR THE BEST CRABS IN BALTIMORE!
Costas Inn has been an area icon, slinging the best crabs in Baltimore since 1971. So here’s to 50 years, and cheers to 50 more!
You may recognize our restaurant recently featured on the Food Network with Michael Symon on Burgers, Brew, and ‘Que! We were also voted the 2015 #1 Baltimore Seafood Restaurant by USA Today and #1 Crab Restaurant 2014 in the Baltimore Business Journal. You may have also spotted Costas Inn during one of our nine appearances on the Today Show or heard one of our many interviews on WJZ TV Channel 13 with Ron Matz and Marty Bass.
You can enjoy our famous crab cakes in-house or order them online for any time eating. We also provide some of the best seafood catering in the Baltimore area! Of course, you can also get your fill from Costas even when you’re not in our dining room: follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube!