Crab Cakes
or as my kids call them, “Crabby Patties”
Whenever I tell people how easy it is to make crab cakes they look at me as if I’m kidding. I tell them, “If you can prepare a meatloaf and cook a hamburger, you can make a great crab cake!”
If you are a purist and want to do it right, you would buy a bunch of blue clawed crabs, boiling them up, chill the creatures and spend hours picking the meat from their tiny little claws.
I remember as a kid, my dad taking us down to my grandfather’s house at the Jersey shore to go crabbing. We came home one time with two bushels of Jersey Blue Claws that had to be cooked and cleaned.
After a while my dad who was doing most of the picking came up with the brilliant idea of using a water pick to blast the meat from those tiny little legs to speed things up. His idea worked but when my mom came in the kitchen, she had a fit when she saw crabmeat hanging from the ceiling and walls. My dad ended up having to repaint the entire kitchen.
I find it much easier to buy fresh lump crabmeat at my local fish market where someone else has spent hours picking the meat. Great if you can find it…even better if you can afford it. A more affordable alternative is buying “pasteurized” crabmeat in 16 oz cans. Costco sells a Phillips brand that is “hand picked lump” that is not bad at all.
On the label they describe how the Phillips family has been processing crabmeat for more than forty years for their Phillips Seafood restaurant. The crab comes from the “tropical waters of Asia, then cooked, hand picked and pasteurized”.
Is this crab as good as my dad’s water picked fresh crab? No way, but it does make a tasty crab cake. My 6-year-old daughter loves to help me make the crab cakes. She says she’s making crab patties like they do on the SpongeBob cartoons. Whatever works?
There are hundreds of recipes out there for crab cakes. I think everyone in Maryland has a secret family recipe. I use the recipe on the can as a guide and then alter it depending on what I have in-house the day I’m making them. The recipe on the Phillips can calls for Phillips Seafood Seasoning but I substitute Old Bay Seasoning but you can use whatever you like or have on hand.
Crab Cakes
Ingredients:
1 egg
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
¼ teaspoon dry mustard
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
1 teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning
¾ cup breadcrumbs
16 oz. lump crabmeat
How to Make at Home
In a good size-mixing bowl, combine all the ingredients together except for the lump crabmeat. Be sure to wash your hands (or your kids hands) first and then get in there and mix all the ingredients together.
Fold in the crabmeat into this mixture but be careful not to overwork it or the nice large “lumps” will break into small pieces.
How to Cook
I typically sauté the crab cakes in a little bit of olive oil and butter mixture but you can also bake them in a 375° F oven for 12 to 15 minutes. Alternatively you can grill them until they reach an internal temperature of 165°F. It’s that easy.
I serve them with a red pepper coulis my wife whips up in the blender.
on May 15th, 2006 at 11:55 am
I’m looking forward to trying this recipe.
Unfortunately you do not say how much crabmeat to use?
How many crab cakes should this recipe make?
Do you use fresh breadcrumbs or are packet breadcrumbs okay?
on May 15th, 2006 at 12:26 pm
I made this recipe with one 16 oz. can of pasturized lump crabmeat that I purchased at Costco. It’s in the recipe now.
How many it makes depends on the size of the cake you make. My 8 year old daughter loves these crab cakes but I make smaller ones for her. I’ve also made miniature cakes and served them as appetizers.
Fresh breadcrumbs are always better but not necessary. I used a non generic commercial brand of unseasoned breadcrumbs but have also made them with a Japanese breadcrumb called Panko (PAHN-koh) which is a little coarser than breadcrumbs you find in the supermarket.
on May 17th, 2006 at 10:19 am
I live in a small town in northern Botswana, near the Okavango Delta. We can only get crab sticks. Could I mash these up and use them in place of the crab meat?
on January 24th, 2007 at 6:26 pm
Made these without the worcestershire, lemon juice and dry mustard, and added half an onion and they were better than any I have ever had. Even from any restaurant.
on February 11th, 2007 at 9:35 am
also add to the recipe –red potatoes boiled and mashed with left over salmon. Try it greattttt…
on May 12th, 2007 at 6:58 am
Liesl, seems if you did not get a reply. I live in Mozambique and have same problem. Did you try it yet with crabsticks - paid an arm and leg for them, don’t want to waste it?
on May 28th, 2007 at 10:34 am
Thank you for the cooking tips. I made crab cakes with a similiar recipe but wanted to see if there were cooking alternatives other than pan frying.
on August 13th, 2007 at 10:18 pm
Can these be deep fryed or is pan-fried prefered? I’ve been told that deep frying crab cakes is better.
on August 31st, 2007 at 6:17 am
Tina, I prefer to pan-fry or saute these crab cakes. Although I love deep fried foods like homemade french fries and fried calamari, I stay away from them for diet reasons. We did, however, just fry up a batch of deep fried chicken legs the other night that were excellent.
I have also seen a lot of recipes that call for baking crab cakes and then you might want to try pan roasting where you brown them in a pan and finish them in the oven.
If you do deep fry some, please come back and let us know how they were. - The Reluctant Gourmet
on September 19th, 2007 at 7:59 pm
I have tried and then modified them. Try chopped red peppers and scallions (green onions) finely chopped and mixed in. YuMMM!
on February 11th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
This sounds great but I have to come clean and admit that I am a mayonnaise hater. Is there anything I could use in its place, or would they come out just as well without? Thanks!
on June 29th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Jeannie,
I’d use an equal amount of creme fraiche, though you may need to add a bit more bread crumbs for cohesion. I almost always go this route, as I rarely have mayo but always have creme fraiche. Trader Joe’s had it for a good price.
on June 30th, 2009 at 1:59 pm
Thanks for that suggestion for Jeannie, Stephen. I wonder how a plain yogurt would work?