Handling of crabs:

1) Kill them. You cannot eat dead crabs as they will cause diarrhea, so be sure to buy them alive. You have to wash it after you buy it, so you have to kill it first. My method is to insert a chopstick directly into the crab's mouth, and soon they will stop showing their teeth and claws.

2) Wash and brush. Just find a toothbrush and brush around, there's nothing much to say.

3) There are two options at this time. One is to throw the whole crab into the pot and cook it; the other is to continue working.

I usually choose the latter. Because when making soup, I don’t want too many disgusting things to cook in the pot. So, cut off the back cover of the crab first. As shown in the picture, those back covers are full of crab poop

Then peel the crab’s shell and remove the black strip (still poop) near the back cover; remove the gills on both sides of the body ( Those white cone-shaped sponge-like objects) There is a lot of dirt here, so brush and rinse again. Finally, remove the sand bag from the crab cover near the crab mouth. I personally think this step is very important. First, it can prevent the sand sac from bursting and leaking out a pile of sand. Second, according to Chinese medicine, this thing is extremely cold and is not good for the body.

When the crab dies, prepare to do other supporting work.