HOME
Blog
Seafood Shop
Contact
About

Jonah Crab

Ways to Cook it: Boil or Steam
Texture: Medium to Firm
Flavor: Mild
Substitutions: Dungeness Crab, Rock Crab, Stone Crab

Lobster fisherman once discarded the Jonah Crab as a nuisance when they got in their lobster traps. The Jonah crab found it's place in the market in the 1990's as an substitute for more expensive crab species such as blue crab, Dungeness and Stone crab.

They are found in waters in from Nova Scotia to northern Florida, with the best population of them coming from the Georges Bank to North Carolina. Although they are fished for year-round, you will find supplies of them lower during the summer months as the lobster fisherman focus mainly on lobsters.

Jonahs are oval shaped like the dungeness crab, but with bigger claws. They have a white underside with a reddish shell. Raw meat will be translucent, while the cooked meat will be white, with tones of reddish-brown.

The meat is sweet and flaky and can be used in any recipes that call for crab meat. Such as stews, soups, dips, and crab cakes. You can find Jonah crab in many product forms, whole cooked, cocktail claws, picked meat and snap-n-eat claws. If you are buying whole Jonah crab claws an easy way to check for quality is to break the shell open and if the meat sticks to the shell it was not cooked or frozen at it's peak freshness.