Today’s recipe is one of my favorites, raw crabs marinated in a spicy seasoning sauce called yangnyeom-gejang. Yangnyeom means spicy seasoning sauce, and gejang means seasoned raw crab. It is sweet, soft, spicy, and has a jelly-like texture. There are several kinds of gejang depending on the seasoning, including the ganjang-gejang recipe I shared a few years ago.
I grew up in a harbor city in Korea, where families make both types of gejang. This is my mom’s recipe. It is simple, and the most important part is getting fresh crabs. Korean flower crabs, called kkotge, are best because their shells are soft and they are full of meat. I have made this recipe only with Korean flower crabs and blue crabs, so those are the two kinds I recommend. If you use blue crabs, be careful of your teeth and fingers! To eat gejang, gently crunch the shells with your teeth and suck out the meat. Softer crab shells are easier to eat. Discard the shells rather than swallowing them.
Live crabs give the freshest taste and the best texture. See my other gejang recipe and video to learn how to handle live crabs. In this video I used flash frozen crabs shipped from Korea. They can be hard to find, but many Korean grocery stores carry them. Be sure to check the expiration date.
Female crabs are best because their orange roe and yellow tomalley, often called the “mustard” in Maryland, make the dish more colorful, sweet, and rich. How can you tell if a crab is male or female? Flip it over and look at the apron. If it is rounded, it is female. If it is narrow and pointed, it is male. If you are buying live crabs, be sure to choose crabs that are actively moving!
As I mention in the video, I have strong memories of going to the open air market early in the morning with my mom to buy crabs for gejang. My mom was a master at handling both the market sellers and the crabs. She was never pinched by either of them. : )
“To handle these crabs, the first thing you have to do is handle their weapons,” she would tell me. Then she pounded their claws with the back of her knife. This disabled the claws and also helped the claw meat absorb the seasoning more easily. “Now they can’t attack me,” she said. Then she cleaned them, mixed in the seasoning, and made gejang just like making a salad.
Start making gejang the day before you want to eat it. You can eat it right away, but it tastes best the next day after marinating overnight.
Ingredients
Makes a little less than 2 pounds.
Preparation time: 1 hour.
- about 2 pounds of Korean flower crabs (or blue crabs) cleaned and cut into pieces (details below)
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 1½ teaspoons peeled ginger, minced
- ⅓ cup gochu-garu (Korean hot pepper flakes)
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1½ teaspoons toasted sesame seeds
Directions
Preparing flash frozen crabs
- Thaw out the crabs in the refrigerator for several hours, or overnight.
- Place the crabs in a large bowl. Run cold water over them, and scrub each one with a kitchen brush. Change the water a couple of times while cleaning. Drain.
- Place one crab belly up on a cutting board. Lift and twist off the flap-like apron.
- Flip the crab over and remove the top shell.
- Using your fingers, take off the feathery gills.
- Cut off the antennae, eyes, mouth parts, and the ends of the back legs that don’t have any meat, using scissors.
- Use a sharp chef’s knife to cut the crab body into 4 to 6 pieces and put them in a large bowl. Repeat with the remaining crabs. Rinse the crab pieces in cold water and drain.
- Crack the claws with the back of the knife, which makes them safer to eat and allows them to absorb the seasoning sauce a little easier. Place the crab pieces in a large bowl.
- Scoop out the tomalley (the greenish digestive gland) and roe (the orange or red eggs) from the top shells with a spoon and put them in a small bowl. Rinse with cold water, drain, and add to the large bowl.
- Your flash frozen crabs are now ready to be seasoned!
Mix with seasonings
- Add garlic, ginger, gochu-garu, soy sauce, and sugar to the crab in the large bowl. Mix until well combined.
- Sprinkle with the sesame seeds. Transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate for at least 12 hours (you can eat the crab immediately, but it will taste better after it has had time to absorb the sauce).
Serving and keeping
- Serve cold as a side dish with rice. It tastes best the day after you make it. Keep it refrigerated and enjoy it within 1 week. For longer storage, freeze it and thaw it in the refrigerator before eating.
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Spicy raw crab
Yangnyeom-gejang 양념게장
It looks great!
I haven’t posted anything in years, but I’ve still been following you. My Mom told me to make my own marinated crabs instead of buying them pre-made. So I used your recipe and added green onions. This is my first time making this recipe and they are so good!
안녕하세요 Maangchi,
I just made this for my mom, whose full Korean (I’m half) but bedridden after her stroke. I only had 1lb because that’s what my brother brought when I asked him to shop for mom. I followed the recipe exact for the marinade. It’s not “saucy” but VERY good. The marinade is thick and dry, especially compared to your pictures. I used half the crab but wanted a lot of sauce and kept the marinade recipe exact but doesn’t seem to coat the crab like yours does. I know the water will pull from the crab with the salt in the soysauce but is it enough? Maybe I’ll just boil it for her with daikon and other stuff. Thanks for another great recipe.
Hi, Kawibunga,
If you feel like there’s not enough marinade, try doubling it.
Hi Maangchi!
Can this recipe be used for shrimp instead of crab?
I was so excited to see that you had posted a yangnyeom gejang recipe! I watched so many mukbangs of people eating it and had wanted to try it for so long. The finished product tasted amazing, especially when you use extra hot gochugaru! Love you Maangchi!
Congratulations! You made 2 kinds of gejang with blue crabs! All look so delicious!
Raw crabs marinated in soy sauce (Ganjang-gejang) recipe: https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/ganjang-gejang
Maangchi,
Where did you buy the flash frozen crabs?!? Would you be able to share the website?
I bought them online. https://wooltariusa.com/en
Queen of hearts? Of course you are ours!
We had this dish at a special place in Seoul in 2010. Twice. Palace food. No chance to enjoy it properly there…
I will make it here soon!
Thank you, sanne, for leaving the first comment on this recipe. I wish you the best of luck in making a delicious and spicy raw crab dish!