The pros: Trader Joe's Canned Crab Meat is the cheapest crab meat around. You'll have to find the right medium for this product. I doubt it would be any good in a crab dip or crab or seafood salad. You can get away with this in a crab cake, but not a Maryland style crab cake where the crab is the star. If you can afford it, splurge for the new product in the freezer aisle Wild Caught Crab.
The cons: Lacks the appearance of lump crab. It looks like they cleaned out the machine, packaged it in water, threw some bigger chunks on top so hopefully you won't notice the shavings of what's left. Crab is not from the US. Slight metallic taste even though it has a paper wrapping in the can.
The verdict: For $1.99 you get a 6 ounce can of which there is more than an ounce of water. After removing the water and paper you are left with 4.25 ounces of actual crab. The crab is not from the US so the source of the fish might be questionable, but then again what do you expect from a can costing $1.99? Go to Costco or most other stores and you are guaranteed to be out at least $10+. So expectations need to be adjusted here.
Would I eat this right out of the container? No. You need to do something to do it. I made crab cakes with them and they came out good. Will you bite into them and get huge lumps of crab meat? Heck no, but they'll be tasty and won't cost as much as what Trader Joe's Crab Cakes will.
Since Trader Joe's also offers Wild Caught Crab in the frozen section, I'd recommend that over this every time, but be ready to open your wallet twice as much for the same amount of product. Two cans will run you about $4. One package in the frozen aisle is $8. It it worth double the price of this, yes. This isn't one of Trader Joe's greatest products, but it's livable with the right recipe.
Trader Joe's Canned Crab Meat looks like:
The nutritional information of Trader Joe's Canned Crab Meat:
The ingredients:
Out of the can you get:
After being drained:
What can you do with this product? Make crab cakes. But don't actually think about Maryland style crab cakes or anything that will look like Trader Joe's Crab Cakes. Recently to the freezer aisle, they have also added a product that is called Trader Joe's Wild Caught Crab Meat. It's pricier. So I made 2 different batches of crab cakes to see if there was really a different. From the outside it was hard to tell which was which:
Cut in half the difference became more obvious.
Biting into it the difference was even more obvious. I used to accept the results from the canned crab. However, now that I've tried Trader Joe's Wild Frozen Crab, I don't know that I can go back to the canned crab. I'll keep a couple cans around just in case, but I'd recommend Trader Joe's Wild Frozen Crab over this every time. It's texturally superior and doesn't have that slight metallic taste. With the can, there really isn't a solid mouthful of crab that you'll be able to enjoy. It's only the tiny shreds of crab.
Want to see more items I've reviewed from Trader Joe's? Click on Thoughts & Reviews of Trader Joe's for a searchable list.
Did you try it? Let me know what you think in the comments section!
Patti says
I enjoy the canned crabmeat. I make a bow tie pasta salad. Two cans to 8 oz pasta but feel free to add more at the price! I dice onion, red bell pepper, celery. Add corn, peas, mayo, dill, crab & a little sea salt. Chill. LOVE. I would not use it any other way.
becomebetty says
Hey Patti! That's a great suggestion! I can see that would be really well done in a crab salad. Have you tried the frozen crab yet?