Steamed blue crabs are a delicacy with sweet, tender meat that many people prefer even over lobster. To actually get at the meat in a steamed blue crab, though, requires a bit of know-how. The technique described here makes opening and eating blue crabs a cinch. To get best results, you should have a nutcracker (or lobster cracker) and a lobster fork (or other small fork). You also have to be willing to get your hands dirty, and should have plenty of napkins available.

1. Hold the crab with its top (red) shell facing the ceiling.
2. Remove the crabs claws and legs by grasping each claw and leg at its base and twisting it off. The image below shows a crab with its claws already removed and the first of its legs in the process of being removed. Once you have removed the claws, you can eat their meat by cracking the claw shell with a nutcracker and then removing the meat with a lobster fork or sucking it out. You can also suck meat out of the crab's legs.
3. Flip the crab over so that its white underside now points toward the ceiling. On its underside, a crab is said to have a "tab." On a male crab (such as that shown below), the tab is shaped like a T, while on a female crab it's shaped like a triangle. With either type of crab, insert the tip of one prong of your fork into the corner of the tab in the center of the crab's underside and pry up the edge of the tab.
4. Use your fingers to pry up the tab further, until it's perpendicular to the crab's underside.
5. Flip the crab over again so that it's top red shell points toward the ceiling. Pry off this top shell by inserting the tips of both thumbs at the base of the tab and pushing down on the crab's underside and up on its top shell. Then lift the top shell away.
6. Remove the crab's "fans," feathery-looking structures that run up the sides of the crab. The "fans" are inedible, but are easily scraped away using a fork.
7. Grasp the crab on either side, with your thumbs on top of the crab where the "fans" used to be. By pressing down on each side of the crab, split the crab in half.
8. Splitting the crab reveals interior cavities that contain the crab's meat. Pull the meat out of the crab using a lobster fork, eat, and enjoy!