What are the culinary differences between Chinese Mitten Crabs and Blue Crabs?

Question

1. I wonder why Chinese mitten crabs are a delicacy in Chinese food, while most people in Europe and US don't eat them even though there are many of them now in these two places? For example, in Germany, mitten crabs are only caught for exporting to China.
2. In US, why are blue crabs popular and valued while Chinese mitten crabs are not? On the food safety side, are the two species both safe to eat?

Thanks!

Answer

As a Chinese, who have had many mitten crabs in my life, I think I can provide 2 insights:

1. In Chinese culinary culture, it's not only meat that's the most appreciated, but rather the taste, texture and the freshness especially with seafood.

2. Mitten crabs during the autumn season contains a lot of eggs under the shell. The flavour of the eggs are what's appreciated as well.

Mitten crabs (not sure in the US) are safe to be consumed from food safety perspective as long as it's being cooked properly like any other seafood.

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Is frozen crabmeat OK to use for crab cakes?

Question

I have some frozen crab that I was going to use in a sauce for pasta but thought maybe crab cakes would be a nice change of pace.
Does the fact that it has been frozen make it unsuitable because of texture change?

Answer

Most crabmeat is pasteurized, so the texture has already suffered a bit. Crab cakes are basically a binder, crab meat, and seasoning. The binder can add all sorts of interesting textures. There are recipes with Panko, bread flour, flour, eggs, ... If you are worried about it being dry, add mayo as @Darin suggested or increase the oil a bit.

Look at the packaging, the crab meat may be already cooked, so you may get away with cooking it less.

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