To Avoid A Mushy Mess, Never Mix Crab Meat With A Spoon

One of the best qualities of crab meat can also make it difficult to work with if you're not careful. The delicate structure of crab meat can cause it to become mushy if overworked and one of the easiest cooking mistakes that makes your crab meat a mushy mess is to mix it with a spoon. When you use a spoon to mix the meat, you inadvertently end up squishing it and tearing it apart; a spoon is not delicate enough to properly handle the crab. 

Instead of using a spoon, you should mix crab meat with either clean hands or a rubber spatula. Both of these methods offer more precision over this step and prevent you from overmixing. Using clean hands is the ideal method because you can delicately handle the crab and ensure you don't mistakenly squish the meat. However, if you're not comfortable using your hands to mix the meat, your next best option is to use a rubber spatula, particularly a thin rubber one that will offer good control over the mixing process.

If you are using your hands to mix crab meat for crab cakes or another dish, you will want to softly toss the crab with any of the other ingredients until it is well incorporated. Using a large enough bowl for this process will allow you ample room to mix without spilling. If using a rubber spatula, you will want to stir the meat in a folding motion to just barely combine all the components. Work slowly with both of these methods and keep a sharp eye on the texture of your meat.

An easy way to prevent overmixing is to thoroughly combine any other ingredients that are being mixed with the crab before adding the crab meat. This ensures that you won't have to do more mixing to get everything well combined and gives you even more control over the texture of the meat.