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Just as you might suspect, she-crabs are simply female crabs.

Some recipes specify spring she-crabs (because the crab roe adds more flavor), so you will need to be able to tell females from males. Luckily, this is easy to do, and you will not need a magnifying glass. Simply look at the underside of the crab.

As you will see from the graphic, the female has a broad, triangular-shaped area in the center of the shell, whereas the male has a distinctive, elongated spire in the center.

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