Wild Norwegian red king crab (Paralithodes camtschaticus), hand-shelled raw and super-frozen at –50°C by VAAG Seafood at their fishery in Henningsvær, Lofoten. Each pack contains pure leg and claw meat — snow-white with distinctive red striping — with all shell, cartilage and feather bone removed. This is high-yielding, zero-waste king crab: every gram in the pack is clean, ready-to-cook meat. The flavour is sweet, mild and delicate, with a texture that sits somewhere between lobster and the finest white crab meat.

The shell work is done using high-pressure processing — a cold technology, unique to VAAG in Scandinavia, that uses extreme pressure to separate meat from shell without heat or chemicals, leaving the texture and translucency of the raw flesh intact. Because the shell work and cartilage removal have already been done for you, this product opens up preparations that whole king crab clusters cannot easily deliver. It can be gently butter-poached or cooked à la nage as whole pieces, cut and folded through a fresh chilli and tomato sauce for a seafood linguine, diced and combined with a salmon mousse as a filling for ravioli, or simply steamed and served with brown butter and lemon. It is the same king crab from the same Finnmark fishery as the whole clusters — the difference is that VAAG have done the preparation to a standard that professional kitchens expect, leaving you with nothing but meat and the cooking to think about.

Producer: VAAG Seafood, Henningsvær, Lofoten, Norway · Wild-caught from Finnmark, Norway (FAO Area 27)

Species: Red king crab (Paralithodes camtschaticus)

Catch method: Pot, Norwegian coastal fleet

Processing: Raw-shelled by HPP (high-pressure processing), vacuum-packed, super-frozen at –50°C

Ingredients: Red king crab (Paralithodes camtschaticus). No additives.

Storage: Keep frozen at –18°C or below until the best-before date. Defrost in the fridge overnight. Once defrosted, refrigerate at 0–4°C and use within 4 days. Do not refreeze.

Allergens: Crustaceans