HS-SPME-GC-MS technology was applied to identify the aroma compounds from the gonad of special, first and second grades of both male and female Chinese mitten-handed crabs cultured in Yangcheng Lake. Fifty-eight volatiles, which can be divided into eight classes, were identified from six kinds of crab samples and further quantitated based on internal standard analysis. The concentrations of eight classes of volatiles were standardized first and then principal component analysis (PCA) analyzed the standard data. Comprehensive scores (also called S-scores), which were calculated from each principal component value and its variance contribution, were used to evaluate the aroma-quality of gonad. The results showed that special and first grades of female crabs had the highest aroma-quality among the six crab samples. Meanwhile, furans, ketones, aromatics, and aldehydes were identified as the four characteristic aroma species that related and contributed a lot to “better quality of aroma”. With a unified consideration of gender factor, we conclude that higher grades of crabs result in better quality of aroma. However, female crabs always acquired higher S-scores than males of the same grade. We have demonstrated that PCA can be used to successfully establish a model for evaluating aroma-quality of crab gonad. Our work offers some theoretical references for future efforts in flavor property improvement.