Can You Eat Crab Lungs?

The lungs of the crab are visible as feathery cones bordering the side of the body. Remove all of them and discard them. They’re not harmful, but they’re not digestible and taste awful, according to an old wives’ tale. It’s edible, and many people enjoy this section of the crab. Crabs, and to lesser extent lobsters, but not as much as crabs, can survive in the air for short periods of time because their gills are housed in chambers on the undersides of their bodies. They don’t actually take in any oxygen. The gills of a crab is not poisonous. They’re just not very tasty to consume. They don’t taste particularly nice and don’t contain much meat, but they won’t harm you if you eat them. Crabs, like every other species that can stay submerged in water indefinitely, lack lungs.

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The body and claws of not all crabs contain edible meat. Break off and set away from all the limbs from a cooked Crab or Dungeness Crab, and much similar variety of crab with eating body meat, turn it upside down and peel off the shell in the middle of its bottom with a knife (called the “apron” flap.)

The lungs of the crab are visible as feathery cones bordering the edge of the body. Take them off and discard them. Crab lungs are not harmful, contrary to popular belief, although they are uneatable and taste awful. This section of the crab can be eaten, and many people enjoy it.

All crustaceans should be humanely euthanized before being cooked or processed. The most merciful way of slaughtering crabs is to properly cool the animal to make it insensible, then kill it by breaking the crab’s nerve centers.

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