How to Prepare Soft Shell Crabs for Cooking. If you buy frozen soft shell crabs, they are almost certainly 'dressed' (cleaned) and ready to cook. If they are fresh, however, you'll need to prep them first. It's a simple process that begins with snipping straight across the front part of the shell just behind the eyes.

Do they clean out soft-shell crabs before cooking?

Fresh softshells don't have to be cleaned. All parts are edible if the crab is cooked alive. If you plan to keep crabs for more than a few hours, however, you should clean them.

Can you eat a soft shell crab without cleaning it?

A step-by-step guide to properly cleaning soft-shell crabs.

Pity the feisty blue crab. ... Not only is the soft-shell defenseless, with its limp claws and squishy carapace, it's also irresistibly easy to eat, requiring nothing more than a quick cleaning of a few inedible parts to prepare it for cooking and eating whole.