Why do shrimps and crabs turn red when cooked?

It used to be said that hairy crabs are affordable food for the rich, but now with the improvement of living standards, most of us can eat them. However, you find that no crab will turn red after steaming for a few minutes, which makes people more appetizing. Why does it turn red? Today, let's talk about the reason why crabs turn red when they are ripe, and see what's the mystery inside.

Why do cooked crabs turn red?

It turns out that the color of crab body surface is mainly determined by pigment cells in crustacean dermis. Many pigments in crabs will be destroyed by high temperature heating. However, one astaxanthin is relatively stable and not easy to be destroyed at high temperature. At this time, astaxanthin can be separated from protein, thus showing the original red color, and the crab body magically turns red.

Why do boiled crabs fall off?

When cooking crabs, it is related to old and tender crabs. Too tender crabs are particularly easy to fall off. When cooking, there is a big fire, and crabs will struggle violently and fall off their feet.

Boil crabs with cold water or hot water?

If your family is used to cooking crabs, remember to cook crabs in hot water. After the cold water is boiled, put the hairy crabs in the water and cook 15-20 minutes. If you cook it in cold water from the beginning, you will have lost some delicious and nutrition of hairy crabs during this time.

Precautions for eating crabs

Usually eat crabs must eat fresh crabs, not dead crabs. This is the biggest taboo to eat crabs, because after the death of crabs, the bacteria in the body will multiply rapidly and enter the crab meat, and then decompose the amino acids in the crab meat to produce harmful substances, and people will have bad symptoms such as abdominal pain or diarrhea after eating.

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Crabs are red. Does it have to be cooked?

1. protein and the original shrimp lycopene will form various colors, and orange is one of them, so some crabs are red when they are alive. ?

2. When the crab is cooking, the shell first touches the heat, and the color changes. The newly discolored crab may not be fully cooked inside, so the crab shell may not be cooked when it is red.

Can't crabs be eaten unless they are red?

Crabs can be eaten without being red. In addition to being cooked thoroughly, there are some well-known ways to eat crabs, such as drunken crabs and salted crabs, which are eaten raw without heating crabs and soaking them in salt water or white wine. None of these eating methods will change the pigment in the crab shell back to the original astaxanthin, so crabs can eat without red. Note that when cooking, you must not eat crabs without red shells.