Resources  > How Many Fresh Stone Crabs Should One Person Eat

Known for their amazing flavor, stone crabs are one of Florida’s most popular delicacies that can be savored during the winter months. If you are looking to invite guests over for a meal or are cooking stone crabs for your family, you might wonder how many you’d need to purchase.

After all, you want to have enough at the table but don’t want to have excessive leftovers either.

While there is a standard way to estimate how many stone crabs one person might eat on average, let’s learn a little more about what these crabs are, how they can be cooked and how you might want to serve them. These aspects have bearing on how many crabs you’d need to buy.

A Little About Stone Crabs

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 The full crabbing season runs from October 15 through to May 15. It’s the only time that you can experience delectable, fresh stone crab claws. These delicious crustaceans can be found in Central Florida’s warm waters heading south towards the Florida Keys.

Typically, these outstanding crabs aren’t very large in size, but their delicate and sweet meat has a unique flavor, making it perfect as an appetizer or a main dish.

Stone crabs are generally caught by commercial fishermen. They use traps that are specially designed for stone crabs, that don’t catch any other species of sea life.

When the fishermen pull the traps out of the water, they take out the crabs & break off the larger claw of each stone crab. The other claw will be left untouched and the crabs will be released into the ocean.

Keeping the second claw intact gives the creature the means to feed and defend itself.

And if you’re thinking it’s cruel to break-off a live crab’s appendage and then release it into the water-that larger claw simply grows back once the crab molts. In this natural process, the crab actually climbs out of its shell and regrows.

The soft shell that lies beneath the hard shell (that it sheds), inflates very rapidly on coming in contact with the sea water and hardens.

Serving Stone Crabs

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 We at Fresh Stone Crabs sell flash-cooked & frozen stone crabs that are sweet in taste and have very delicate and succulent flesh.

The thawed claws can be microwaved, baked or steamed. Stone crabs are best served cold and is truly a delicacy for special occasions. The meat from stone crab legs can be incorporated into a more complex recipe or eaten plain. The latter are often served with a mustard, mayonnaise or butter-based dipping sauce.

How To Estimate The Quantity Of Stone Crab Claws You Need

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When serving guests, you want to know how much meat you can get from the crabs.  About two and a half pounds of the prepared stone crab claws will generally give you a pound of meat.

An average individual can eat about 1 pound. However, if you have a crab lover at the dinner table, they might easily be able to put away at least 2 lbs-3 lbs.

It’s a fact and this is something you need to keep in mind when you’re serving stone crabs. When you choose to buy them from us, you’ll know how amazingly fresh they are.

Your guests will surely be clamoring for larger portions, so it’s best not to get caught short.

Stone Crab Sizes

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Stone crabs are available in different sizes. On the Fresh Stone Crabs site you can choose from these sizes- Medium, Large, Jumbo, Colossal. Our stone crabs are 100% fresh and 50% less expensive than any other companies in this space.

But many customers wonder which ones to purchase and which size provides the best value.

We recommend that you buy a mix-and-match of sizes. Depending on the total number of guests or family members you can buy some medium, large, jumbo and colossal stone crabs.  Here is some information that will give you a rough idea of how many to order.

• When you order medium stone crabs, you can get 7-8 per pound
• Large stone crabs, you’ll get 4-5 per pound.
• In a pound of Jumbo you’ll get 3 per pound.

Some More Estimations:

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Colossal

• 2 claws per pound
• 5 or more ounces of meat

Medium

• 6 to 7 claws per pound
• 1 1/2 pounds for an Entrée
• 1 pound for appetizer

Large

• 4-5 claws per pound
• 1 1/2 pounds for an Entrée
• 1 pound for appetizer

Jumbo/Large Mix

• 2-4 claws per pound
• 1 1/2 pounds for an Entrée
• 1 pound for appetizer

You will find that the meat of all the crabs is delicious, has a firm texture and is sweet to the core. Buying a combination of these claws adds some variety to the table and also gives your guests the option to pick the ones they prefer.

The colossals and jumbos look truly impressive. What’s more, your guests won’t have that much of a challenge peeling them.

The mediums are also a good option, especially of you feel that you are going to need a very large quantity and have a fixed budget to spend on them. These tend to be priced a little lower not because the quality is inferior in any way.

It’s just that these crabs tend to walk into the traps with narrower mouths and a larger number of them are caught along Florida Bay, Florida Keys, as well as the Gulf of Mexico. Large stone crabs are very popular as well.

When you buy any of these crabs from us, you will get full claws with succulent and delicious meat.

Nutritional Value

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Today, many people are also quite conscious about the foods they eat and want to know the nutrition value of stone crabs. Crab legs contain very few calories and very little fat and are high on nutrition. Note that the sodium content in crab legs might prevent those with blood pressure or heart problems from relishing this otherwise super-healthy seafood.

A 3 ounce portion of cooked stone crab meat contains:

• 60 calories
• 15 gm protein
• No fat
• 45 mg cholesterol
• 4 gm calcium
• 300 mg sodium

 Some Cooking Suggestions And Tips

• Sprinkle chopped stone crab meat into a delicious tossed green salad
• Add it to your special stew or soup recipe
• Combine chopped stone crab meat with chopped onions, fresh herbs and low-fat mayonnaise. Use the mixture as a delicious sandwich filling
• Create a pocket in a halibut fillet or chicken breast using a sharp knife. Stuff this pocket with cooked stone crab meat, spices & minced and cook the fish/chicken as you normally would.
• Simply sauté stone crab meat with some mushrooms, water chestnuts and pea pods to make a nutritious and light stir-fry.

Where to Buy Fresh Stone Crabs

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While there are numerous restaurants, where you can get this delectable food, the prices can be quite steep. With this in view, we at Fresh Stone Crabs, decided to source the freshest claws at the best pricing.  

You will find that our crab claws are 50% less expensive than ones sold anywhere else.

We ship fresh never-frozen crab claws throughout the US and offer a next-day delivery. We also include a special sauce in every single order.  

You get a free Key Lime Pie with all local deliveries on orders of 10 pounds and above. For local orders of 5 pounds and above, delivery is free.

When you choose to buy something as special as stone crabs, you want to be sure they are as fresh as can be.

We at Fresh Stone Crabs is the one place where you can get assured quality, the accurate quantity and easy delivery of stone crabs.