Review: Amco 8 Piece Cracker Set for Seafood & Nuts

I love crab. Over the years, I looked for a cracker set but ended up using a nutcracker and one of the accompanying picks. They worked, but I wondered if a cracker for seafood would work better. Finally, after years of searching, I found a set a Bed, Bath & Beyond for $14.99. It seemed a bit pricey for two crackers and six forks with scoops, but after searching for so long, I was willing to pay the price. Yes, I could have ordered them online, probably for a bit less, but seafood crackers were not always foremost on my mind. When I was looking for something else and saw the set, I bought it.

The cracker is made of a material similar to a traditional nutcracker, though very lightweight. The fork/spoon combination is less rigid. It is quite lthin and would be possible to bend the fork or spoon end.

I used this product with snow crab and king crab (king crab has spikes so use a glove or thick towel to handle). Without mincing words, save your fifteen bucks and use your regular nutcracker and pick. The set looks classy, but a nutcracker and pick work better.

With snow crab, unless you buy large (read wide) legs, neither end of the fork/spoon tool fit easily into the legs to pull out the meat. The cracker has two grip areas of different sizes which limits the leg size you can crack. Of course, you could use the small space between the two areas, but it is a small space, very narrow, and does not grip well. The whole set is useless to get meat out of the tip of a leg. I found myself using kitchen shears to cut open a leg, spread it wide, then using the fork to get the meat out. It was just as easy to use my fingers to pull out the meat.

The set works fine with king crab. The legs are wider and better able to fit the fork/spoon tool. Still, kitchen shears and fingers work just fine.

If you are determined to have a fork tool, an olive fork (found in liquor stores or where cocktail supplies are sold) works just as well and is even sturdier than the fork from this set.

If you don't eat a lot of king crab, and even if you do, save your money and use a regular nutcracker and pick.