Is the butter crab a diseased crab? How much does it cost per jin, and how does it differ from the roe crab?
The butter crab is a relatively rare and expensive crab in our country. It is famous because yellow oil can be seen at the joints of the crab shell, crab claws and so on, and it has the laudatory title of “king of crabs”. It is generally very hard to buy, and some people have never even heard of this kind of crab. So is the butter crab a diseased crab? How much does it generally cost per jin? How does it differ from the roe crab?
Is it a diseased crab?
No, because at first the butter crab was only regarded as a diseased crab or miscellaneous crab among roe crabs. It could not be steamed plain or salt-baked on its own, because customers would complain of “scattered roe and leaking oil”, so it could only be picked out and used for stir-fried crab or congee. No one knows who discovered how delicious it was, accepted it, recommended it, and praised it, and so it began to become popular. In the 1990s, the butter crab left Lau Fau Shan and entered some high-end restaurants in Kowloon and Hong Kong Island. “Rich enough to drip oil” is the dream deepest in the hearts of Hong Kong people, and the butter crab came at just the right time. First came the enthusiasm of Hong Kong food connoisseurs: “gather the exquisite beauty of things to nourish my inner gourmand”; then, as a newly emerging prized edible crab species, it became a sought-after delicacy on the plates of diners in Guangdong, Hong Kong, China, Macao, China and other places, and was given the laudatory title of “king of crabs”, with its price soaring to the top among all crabs. After the Dragon Boat Festival and before the Mid-Autumn Festival is the “in-season” period, exactly the best time to taste it.
Latest price of butter crab:
A top-grade first-hand butter crab can sell for 2000 yuan each
Butter crabs are generally divided into three grades: A, B and C
Generally, Grade A butter crabs of 5 liang or more are priced at 450 yuan each or more, Grade B can also sell for 300 each or more, and lower-quality Grade C butter crabs still sell for 200 each.
The reason butter crabs are so expensive is not only because of their deliciousness, but also because their numbers are extremely scarce. It is said that on average only one wild butter crab is produced from 100 roe crabs, and because it is an abnormal mutation, the butter crab has a very short survival period, generally only from late May of the lunar calendar to before the Mid-Autumn Festival, just two and a half months. Most of those sold on the market now are artificially farmed semi-wild butter crabs.
Difference from the mud crab:
The predecessor of the butter crab is the roe crab, which belongs to the female mud crab, so its appearance is no different from that of the roe crab. The difference is that the body color of the steamed crab is between red and yellow, and yellow oil can be seen through at the crab shell and the joints of the crab claws. The butter crab is a newly emerging prized edible crab species in Guangdong, Hong Kong, China, Macao, China and other places in recent times. It is renowned in the south and has the laudatory title of “king of crabs”.
Butter crabs are few in number and expensive, so the market is flooded with some “fake butter crabs”. They are actually not inferior products either; most are soft-shell crabs of relatively good quality. But a true butter crab has the following characteristics: a plump body, firm and heavy in the hand, golden yellow all over, especially the legs, claws and belly, showing bright yellow, as if butter could leak out at any time.
Before cooking a butter crab, it must be made drunk with aged Huadiao wine plus salt water. In this way, the butter crab can be prevented from breaking its claws and leaking oil when it struggles from the heat, preserving the most essential part.