Foods & cuts · Crab
Whole crab
Almost always bought already cooked, so the fire is browning and warming rather than cooking. Halved and grilled cut face down, shell as the dish.
What it is
- Form
- In the shell
- Typical weight
- 600–1200 g
- Typical thickness
- 50–80 mm
- Cut
- Not a cut of anything
Why it behaves as it does
The second food in this catalogue where the barbecue is not where the cooking happens, and it arrives at that position from the opposite direction to octopus. Octopus needs a long wet cook first because of collagen; a crab needs one because that is how it is sold — the overwhelming majority of crab at a British counter has already been boiled, and putting it over fire is a reheat with some char attached. An already-cooked, chilled state is listed first here for that reason, which is unusual in this catalogue and is honest. The shell does the same work it does for a lobster: it holds shape, holds moisture, and serves as the vessel. Overheating dries the white meat quickly and there is no fat to buy any margin. No duration is published.
When is it done?
Food-safety endpoint
BBQHQ holds no food-safety rule for this food. We are not showing you another jurisdiction’s figure in its place — check your national food-safety authority.
When it goes wrong
- It came out tough
- Prawns, scallops, squid, lobster or octopus came out rubbery — 3 distinguishable causes.
Afterwards
Cooling, keeping and reheating what is left is general guidance for barbecue leftovers. Neither UK authority publishes anything specific to whole crab, and BBQHQ does not invent a distinction they do not make.
What we don't know about this
No published barbecue cooking time has been found for this food. The sources that cover it describe how to prepare it or how to keep it safe, not how long it takes over fire.
No institutional publisher has been found giving a grilling duration for this shellfish. The visual cues published here are what the available sources actually support.
What we know we’re missing records what was searched for each of these, and what would settle it.