The Perfect Crab Cake Recipe
If there is one thing Southerners know it is how to handle their seafood. Whether its gumbo, fried catfish or shrimp and grits, I think we can all agree that Southern seafood is supreme. And if you ask me, Crab Cakes are the best of them all.
Gosh, I absolutely love Crab Cakes! Everyone has their own version of the perfect crustation creation but mine is this: full of flaky crab meat, little to no filler, creamy mayonnaise and a balance of wonderful spices.
Todays recipe is the embodiment of my favorite Crab Cake, and I can guarantee that your tastebuds will thank me!
How To Serve Crab Cakes
We like making a dinner out of these, serving them with some sides and eating them with a fork and some cocktail or tartar sauce on the side. They make great party food, especially since you can prepare them in advance and just bake them right before serving. You can make smaller hors doeurves-size versions and serve them as appetizers for a party or other event.
Another option is to make a crab cake sandwich by using a full-size crab cake between a buttered and toasted bun with some butter lettuce and an aioli or other sauce.
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Flavor Variations
- Spice blends: try using a pinch of Old Bay seasoning to give your crab cakes a more authentic Maryland taste, or use some Italian seasoning to mix it up a little.
- Lemon juice: for a delicious tang, sprinkle a little fresh lemon juice over the top of the crab cakes.
- Worcestershire sauce: if you want a dash of a very powerful flavor to cut the fishy taste, add a few drops of Worcestershire sauce into the crab mixture before baking.
- Dijon mustard: for a more moist crab cake you can use French or dijon mustard instead of dry ground mustard. The flavor is fairly similar to the original but the texture will be different.
- Red pepper: if the hot sauce just doesnt have enough of a kick for you, you can stir pepper into the batter or sprinkle red pepper flakes on top for a crunchy, spicy taste.
- Crackers: if you dont want to use bread crumbs you can crush crackers in a food processor until they are fine crumbs and use those instead. For the best flavor, I would suggest using ritz or saltine crackers.
- Green onions: you can chop these up and sprinkle them over the top raw or sauté them on high heat in a large skillet with some butter to eat as a delicious garnish.
What to serve with Crab Cakes:
HISTORY
How to Store Crab Cakes:
Safe Cooking Temperatures for Crab:
According to the USDAs official website, seafood is cooked through and safe to eat when the internal temperature reaches 145 degrees F .
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How To Store And Reheat Crab Cakes
Crab Cakes consist mainly of crab, eggs and mayonnaise all of which are quite perishable. In the interest of food safety, be sure to properly wrap and refrigerate your leftovers promptly after theyve been served. I would suggest consuming your leftovers within 24 hours.
To reheat: bring your crab cakes to room temperature, preheat the oven to 325 degrees and lay the cakes on a foil-covered baking sheet. Give each cake room, so theyre not crowded and heat for 10-15 minutes.
To prevent drying out, I would suggest placing a pad of butter on each cake or tenting the pan with additional foil.
Avoid the microwave at all cost! A microwave will render your cakes rubbery and tough. Such a waste.
The Ingredients We Need For This Recipe Are Shown In The Photo Below:
As you can see we have:
- crab meat
The other thing I like to do when serving these patties, is place them on a platter with sliced cucumber, cherry tomatoes, fresh dill and a few bowls for your crab cakes sauce. Sweet chilli is the bomb diggity combination and a mustard yoghurt like in our Zucchini Mini Muffins works for the non chilli fans.
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More Easy Crab Recipes
If youre looking for something a little more along the lines of a dip.may I tempt you with this super easy, extra cheesy Hot Crab Dip?
We also love this crab dip because you just, basically, mix all the ingredients in a bowl then start the dipping. Or try these super simple Stuffed Mushrooms.stuffed with CRAB.
This super easy Crab Salad is basically throwing a bunch of stuff in a bowl and tossing it around. OR this is healthy and packed with veggies.we make it all the time and it DOES have Old Bay in it.
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Jumbo Lump Crab Cakes Are The Bomb
What type of crab cakes do you like? I am very picky when it comes to ordering crab cakes when eating out. I dont like the cakes with backfin meat or too much filler like breadcrumbs. My favorite type of crab cake has jumbo lump crab meat and very little filler. If you are like me, you will love this recipe for the best ever crab cakes.
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Easy Crab Cakes Recipe
This easy crab cakes recipe has just 7 simple ingredients. Its packed with lumps of juicy crab meat, savory seasonings, and flaky breadcrumbs. And the recipe is so easy to make!
Crab cakes started as a staple dish in Maryland and Virginia but have become famous all over the United States.
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This family favorite is loaded with sweet and tender crab meat, Old Bay Seasoning, and breadcrumbs.
Whether theyre fried, baked, broiled, or grilled, the end product is a soft and flaky cake that is absolutely to die for.
I used to think crab cakes were super fancy and hard to make. But theyre surprisingly simple!
Want to try your hand at making these easy crab cakes yourself? Well, youve come to the right place.
Best Crab Meat For Crab Cakes
The Chesapeake Bay is home to Marylands famous blue crabs. Opinions vary on what the best crab variety is and its usually determined by where you live. Maryland crabs are known for their unique buttery flavor and Dungeness crabs, found on the west coast, are known for their impressive size. If you arent steaming your own crabs for crab meat, let me help you navigate which crab meat is best for crab cakes.
Whichever crab variety you use, make sure you purchase crab meat labeled hand-picked or fresh-picked which means that the crab meat has been picked through for shells and cartilage.
Crab meat sold out of the shell has been cooked and can be consumed. Its very rare to find raw crab meat sold out of the shell its almost always cooked before its picked out of the shell. At the market, you can find canned, frozen, or fresh crab meat. Unrefrigerated canned crab meat doesnt have an ideal flavor for crab cakes. If you need to use canned, look for canned crab meat in the refrigerated section of your market. The fresher the crab meat, the better the crab cake will taste. Ask your grocer where to find the freshest crab meat in the store. I purchase fresh crab meat sold in a 1 lb plastic tub from the seafood counter in my grocery store. Sometimes the tubs are behind the glass or found on ice next to the seafood counter.
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Can I Use Canned Crab Meat
Its best to use crab meat that is as fresh from the crab as possible and lump crab meat is important. If the crab meat is pre-packaged, it should come from the refrigerated section of the store. I have tried with crab meat from an aluminum can which resulted in overly salty, fishy-smelling crab meat and was a major disappointment.
Fresh Vs Frozen Vs Canned: What Crab Meat Should I Buy
If possible, always buy fresh or frozen crab meat rather than canned.
TIP 1: I REPEAT AVOID THE CANNED OPTIONS! Canned options are typically flavorless and rubbery. For a brand that I love that is fresh, check out Pontchartrain Blue Crab. It is imported regularly and can be found at Whole Foods Market. You will find it over ice in the seafood section so it stays fresh.
TIP 2: Another amazing tip is asking your local grocery store seafood section. They usually have fresh crab in the back of the store and will go to their fresh deliveries and gather and weigh it for you if in stock. This guarantees you get fresh delicious crab for your crab cakes.
For this recipe, I highly suggest flaked lump crab meat which refers to smaller pieces of meat that come from the claw. The flavor is delicious and the texture melts in your mouth.
TIP 3: If using frozen meat, be sure to properly defrost, rinse and dry off excess moisture. The result will be a bit different but nonetheless, delicious.
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How To Make Crab Cakes Using Canned Crab
If you cant get your hands on any fresh crab meat, canned crab is a more than acceptable alternative. Using canned crab, I prefer to get hold of the pasteurized version, found in Costcos refrigerator section and most of the bigger food stores.
As an alternative, canned crab or pasteurized crab is a great alternative because it is a mixture of meat from various parts of the crab, giving you a sweet, tender textured product. It also benefits from being easier on the purse at the cost of only around $19 per pound.
- Before you use these alternatives, be sure to drain off any excess liquid, then chop the meat into smallish sized pieces.
- You dont want to break it up any further, or you will ruin the texture. But again, the choice is yours.
Baked Crab Cakes Recipe
These delicious baked crab cakes recipe has a light, crunchy, golden-brown crust without ever seeing the inside of the frying pan. I like to serve them with smooth, lemony, lightly spiced remoulade sauce, which I feel is a perfect accompaniment.
These crab cakes are a fantastic starter and can be made home with ease. The use of Panko breadcrumbs melds the crab meat and veggies together perfectly and creates a wonderful, crispy outer. The use of lump crab with a savory seasoning is a gourmet delight of an entrée.
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Tips For Making Crab Cakes:
- Check for Shell Pieces before adding the crab meat, I like to pick it apart to check for any stray shell fragments.
- Refrigerate chill the mixture for 30 minutes before forming your patties and they will hold together better. It also gives a chance for the flavors to meld.
- Ice Cream Scoop a trigger release scoop makes it easier to portion even crab cakes.
- Wet hands Keep a bowl of water for dipping while forming patties. Crab cake mixture wont stick to your hands.
- Non-Stick Pan a good nonstick pan will keep the cakes from sticking to the pan and breaking apart. It also requires less oil and butter to sautee.
Secret To Crispy Baked Crab Cakes
The incredible thing with crab cakes is undoubtedly a large amount of delicious crabmeat. That, together with the light, crunchy crust, is a gastronomic delight. Baking these little cakes results in a crispy outer that would convince anybody they have been lightly fried. How is it done? Its all about pre-toasting those wonderful Panko breadcrumbs until they are a crispy golden brown.
You find crab cakes in the starter section of many restaurants menus. But it isnt necessary to wait until you eat out next time to eat this unique entrée. They are quite simple to make at home. All you need is some lump crab, some eggs, bell peppers, onions, chives, mayo, mustard, and a little seasoning, plus a good recipe to follow.
Optional:
You can opt to make a panade by mixing the Panko crumb with eggs to make sure that your crab cakes retain their shape when you cook them. When you serve the finished article, lightly drizzle with a squeeze of lemon juice and accompany with a side of aioli or tartar sauce.
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How To Make Crab Cakes
I promise you they are not that hard to make.
There you go! You should be able to get crab cakes that are crisp on the outside and tender and moist on the inside.
How Do You Keep Crab Cakes From Falling Apart
A crab mixture can all too easily fall apart, so its essential to use that panade we talked about earlier made from breadcrumbs, egg, mayo, and mustard. It makes an ideal binding agent. The breads starch soaks up the moisture and turns a little sticky. As the eggs cook, they seal in the ingredients.
Ensure that your crab cakes dont fall apart when cooking. Its best to form the patties nice and tightly, and when it comes to flipping them over, if you are frying them, you need to do so carefully.
The Secret of Preventing Crab Cakes from Falling Apart
As you already know, my way of stopping white crab cake patties from falling apart when I cook them is to use a panade. I find it a little strange, but if you check crab cake recipes online, youll discover that most have no flour. The problem is that it lacks flour in the binding process that leads to them falling apart.
- As the starches and the breadcrumbs start to absorb the moisture, its going to become sticky. Also, the egg when cooked, its going to bind and set everything together. This helps the crab cakes hold their shape while cooking.
- I do not use too much starch. If you do, you will end up with tough crab cakes. A smidgen is enough, and I find it keeps the mixture together but still allows you to achieve a sweet, juicy, scrumptious crab cake.
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