When Is the Best Season to Eat Chinese Mitten Crab? Can They Be Eaten in January-February? A Four-Season Eating Schedule Included
The Chinese mitten crab (Eriocheir sinensis) is a long-renowned delicacy in China. Its pincers are used for feeding and defense, and the inner and outer edges of its palms are densely covered with fine hair, which is how the mitten crab got its name. So when is the best season to eat Chinese mitten crab? Can they be eaten in January and February? Here we have compiled a year-round crab-eating schedule.
When Is the Best Time to Eat Chinese Mitten Crab
Chinese mitten crab has a rich crab aroma, red and flavorful roe, tender meat, and abundant nutrition, and is loved by everyone. The golden season for eating Chinese mitten crab each year is only a short 4 months; miss it once and you miss a whole year. At other times, Chinese mitten crabs are not yet mature and are in the farming stage.
August to November is the best time to eat Chinese mitten crab. As the saying goes, “nine females, ten males,” so the 9th lunar month is best for eating female crabs, and the 10th lunar month for male crabs. Females turn golden yellow, males are like white jade, and the taste is delicious. Of course, it also depends on the climate conditions of that year; when the autumn wind rises, crab legs itch, and whether autumn comes earlier or later has an effect. Old Shanghai custom: when the northwest wind blows, eat Chinese mitten crab. In recent years, with global warming, the cold waves in the Jiangnan region have been delayed to around New Year's Day. At this time, Chinese mitten crabs enter the late stage, and production decreases; not only is the quality low, but the price is high.
Year-Round Crab-Eating Schedule
Late September to before Spring Festival: Yangtze River crab
Nine females and ten males are most suitable
Every year when the autumn wind is crisp, Chinese mitten crabs surge onto diners' tongues like the tide. Wang Chenghui said that the crab migration season (after Cold Dew to early November) is the best season to eat crabs. Crabs during this period have thick, plump, tender meat and are delicious in taste and color, the freshest of the year. This period is also the mature eating period for Yangtze River crabs in China.
The Yangtze River basin is China's main crab-producing area. Well-known examples such as Yangcheng Lake Chinese mitten crab, Qidong crab, Taihu crab, and Subei crab all belong to Yangtze River crab. Chinese mitten crabs go through multiple molts and growth stages in their lifetime, and Yangtze River crabs come onto the market successively around late September.
To eat crab in autumn, one must distinguish male from female to enjoy the freshest crab feast of the season. The so-called “nine females, ten males” means that in the 9th lunar month female crabs are fattest, with abundant and firm crab roe, and in the 10th lunar month male crabs are most fragrant, with plump crab paste, making it the best time to eat crab and admire chrysanthemums.
Spring Festival to late April: temporarily farmed Chinese mitten crab
Taste and nutrition are hard to guarantee
To fulfill people's wish to eat crab year-round, temporarily farmed Chinese mitten crabs have emerged, that is, some autumn-mature Chinese mitten crabs are kept in specific low-temperature environments through technology and then sold out of season, relieving crab lovers' longing.
Temporarily farming Chinese mitten crabs is very difficult, involving not only market risk but also technical challenges. Wang Chenghui said that Chinese mitten crabs easily lose condition, and if the farming environment is poor, the quality of the crab will be affected, the taste will worsen, the crab paste will harden, the crab roe will decrease, and nutrients will also be lost. To maintain taste, farmers need to strengthen the supply of animal-based bait, and can also use cooling methods to delay the development of the crab's gonads, ” so that energy and nutrition are preserved longer.
Crabs that are temporarily farmed are sold out of season, so those who stockpile crabs generally wait until after Spring Festival to sell temporarily farmed crabs, allowing Chinese mitten crabs to reach the table in spring.
Late April to mid-June: wild Chinese mitten crabs from Russia and North Korea
The best tasting period is short
You might not expect that in this season crabs are not in short supply. With the prosperity of border trade, wild border-trade crabs from Russia and North Korea cross regional limits and appear on Chinese diners' tables.
Wang Chenghui said that compared with Chinese mitten crabs from China's Yangtze River basin, Russian and North Korean Chinese mitten crabs have flatter frontal teeth (four teeth), grow in a purely wild environment without any artificial farming, and their growing environment cannot be guaranteed, so the taste varies from year to year.
Because of the high latitude and lower temperatures, wild Chinese mitten crabs from Russia and North Korea do not reach full maturity until their 3rd year, so production is extremely low. Crabs have the habit of reproductive migration, and Russian and North Korean Chinese mitten crabs migrate from late April to mid-June. The best tasting period is relatively short, so you have to seize that season to taste them.
Mid-June to late August: June yellow
Thin shell and fresh meat
“However busy you are, don't forget June yellow”; this folk proverb is diners' praise for June yellow. June yellow is the “little fresh meat” among Chinese mitten crabs, also called “boy crab”; it is the adolescent stage of the Chinese mitten crab and usually comes onto the market in mid-June each year.
Wang Chenghui said that June yellow is called “green crab” by people and has the characteristics of small size (body weight generally around 2 liang), thin and crisp shell, delicious taste, strong fishy smell, and relatively little limb meat. In this short crab-eating season, you can have a taste of freshness.
During this period, mainly male crabs are eaten; female crabs at this time are still very small, around 1 liang, and not suitable for eating. Because they are still “underage,” June yellow has no crab paste, only crab roe. Although not as large as adult Chinese mitten crabs, unlike the hard crab roe of adult Chinese mitten crabs, the crab roe of June yellow is fresh, fragrant, and plump. Choose June yellow with a swollen body and yellow belly, and make “flour-dragged June yellow” and “stir-fried June yellow with rice cakes” to satisfy a craving.
When Is the Best Time to Eat Crab: Year-Round Crab-Eating Schedule
Late August to late September: Liao River crab
Slightly smaller in size
Liao River crab and Yangtze River crab both belong to river crab; Yangtze River crab is a southern crab, while Liao River crab is what is often called northern crab. According to the reproductive migration patterns of Liao River crab and local climate characteristics, Liao River crabs already come onto the market successively by late August, and September is the peak fishing period.
Under normal circumstances, Liao River crab is smaller than Yangtze River crab. This is because the temperature in the Yangtze River basin causes Yangtze River crab to molt one more time each year than Liao River crab, and thus grow one more time. But in recent years, many farmers, pursuing a larger size for Liao River crab, keep some crabs for 2 to 3 years before catching and selling them, and the size can then be comparable to Yangtze River crab.
Wang Chenghui introduced that as long as the crab farming environment is high quality, with abundant aquatic life, clear water, and more animal-based bait feeding, Liao River crab can also become a high-quality Chinese mitten crab with a green shell, white belly, golden claws, and yellow hair.