By BEN R. WILLIAMS
Hello and welcome to recipesforyou.com! Curious how long it takes to boil crab legs? That’s a great question!
Crab legs are so easy to make at home. There’s no reason for you to go out to a restaurant and spend double what you would pay if you just buy them at the store and make them yourself! Most grocery stores carry crab legs, and they’re usually pre-cooked and flash-frozen; all you have to do is boil (or steam!) them to make them absolutely perfect.
If you want to know how long to boil crab legs, keep reading!
First things first, are you buying Alaskan snow crab legs or king crab legs? Snow crab legs are the most popular, while king crab legs come from the larger red king crab and are covered in tiny spikes! Here’s a crazy fact: king crabs are believed to be derived from hermit crab-like ancestors in the family Paguridae! They’re considered a prime example of carcinisation, which is a form of convergent evolution in which crustaceans continually evolve into very similar crab-like forms. In fact, some of the creatures we consider crabs aren’t really crabs at all — porcelain crabs, for example, are more closely related to squat lobsters! Pretty wild, huh?
Whatever they are, you’re probably wondering how long you should cook them. Read on!
Neptune, God of the Seas, brother to Jupiter and Pluto and husband to Salacia. So many of our favorite quick-and-easy recipes pertain to his watery kingdom. From the humble fish stick, to the sweet lobster, to the forbidden manatee burger, there’s always something in the ocean that can sate your hunger. Today, of course, we’re talking about crab legs, and specifically how long they should be boiled! We’ll assume you’re going to boil some snow crab legs since those are the most popular. Did you know that there are seven different species of snow crab in the genus Chionoecetes? These are, in alphabetical order, C. angulatus, C. bairdi, C. elongatus, C. japonicus, C. opilio, C. pacificus, and C. tanneri. The species we generally eat are C. bairdi and C. opilio, and it’s very difficult to tell them apart! Fortunately, no matter which species you have, you’ll boil it for the same amount of time!
So how long do you boil crab legs? Read on to find out!
My grandfather was a deeply paranoid man. After returning home from the Korean War, he became convinced that shadowy figures were bombarding him with radio waves that were conducted into his body via tiny pieces of shrapnel. Perhaps that’s why he always sang Debbie Reynolds’ “Tammy” at a low volume as he stalked through his darkened house rubbing magnets all over his body. There was only one thing that would ever bring peace to his racing, tortured mind: a big, steaming plate of delicious crab legs, served with plenty of drawn butter!
But how long, O Lord, should you boil crab legs? Keep reading!
Boiling is the rapid vaporization of a liquid that occurs when a liquid is heated to its boiling point, which is the temperature at which the vapor pressure of the liquid is equal to the pressure exerted on the liquid by the surrounding atmosphere. Water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit (100 Celsius), but not everything boils at such a low temperature! For example, liquid nitrogen boils at -320.5 degrees! Iron, on the other hand, boils at 5,342 degrees, while mercury, which is liquid at room temperature, boils at a comparatively low 674.1 degrees! Just don’t boil your crab legs in mercury! You’ll die horribly!
So how long should you boil crab legs? Do you really want to know? Are you ready? Are you sure?
About five minutes oughta do it.
Don’t forget to join our mailing list!
