When cooking crab and corn on the cob, if I put the crab in boiling water to kill it and clean it and then steam it in another pot is it OK to use the water in the first pot to cook corn on the cob?

 As in, "a little crab-infused boiling water is a terrible thing to waste?"

We could go either way with your answer. If you've ever seen a Louisiana crab or crawfish or shrimp boil, you've seen that everything goes in one pot — crabs, crawfish, shrimp, potatoes, corn on the cob, onions, lemons, sausage, pepper sauce, seasoning, etc., so that every ingredient picks up lots of flavor from the other ingredients.

But if the water you're using is really to clean the crabs, and you wind up with a bunch of boiling sandy water, then no, we don't think that would enhance the flavor or texture of your corn. Start with fresh water or use a bit of the crab water to steam the corn.

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