Crab refers both to the crustacean itself and, in cooking, to its meat: sweet, delicate, and slightly briny, prized as a seafood ingredient in cuisines worldwide. Major culinary species include Dungeness crab, blue crab, snow crab, and king crab, each with a different size, meat yield, and native range along the coasts of North America, Europe, Asia, and the Pacific.
Crab meat is used across a wide range of preparations: in Asian cooking it appears in soups, stir-fries, steamed dishes, and sushi; in European and North American cooking it's central to crab cakes, seafood cocktails, chowders, and pasta or risotto dishes. Its sweet, briny flavor and tender, flaky texture pair well with citrus, herbs, butter, and cream, as well as other seafood like shrimp and lobster.
Crab can be served hot or cold, as a topping or filling, or as the centerpiece of a dish such as crab cakes or a crab-based soup or stew.