You guys didn't know I used to be the crab master ... did ya??? Growing up in Portlan, Tillamook Bay crab were nearly endangered in the late 80's until I stopped road tripping back home to dump the pots ... fortunately, they've made a nice recovery since

Ditto on the salt water. If you don't use salt water, then use rock salt, plenty of it. Nothing runins a good crab quicker than boiling in plain water ... yuck!!

Keep 'em alive and then boil 'em whole. As soon as they come out of the water, plunge them into ice water. This last step seems to separate the meat from the shell and easy to slurp up

After the ice water, just pull the back off and clean up the goop and then give a rinse, trying to remove anything that isn't white in color.

Enjoy and please send some my way