Maryland Crab Cakes Recipe

[oldbay]

This time of year we like to make crab cakes. It's like religion around here. The crabs around the Chesapeake Bay are getting meaty now and so August and September are the best months for local crab meat. Here's how we make our crab cakes.

1. Remove the crust from 2 slices of bread and break into small pieces.
2. Combine with 1 pound of fresh (cooked) crab meat that has been picked over and had any remaining shell or cartilage removed (i.e the commercial crab pickers pick fast).
3. Combine in a bowl 1 tsp Old Bay Seasoning, 1 tbsp baking powder, 1 tbsp dehydrated chopped parsley, 1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce, 1 tbsp mayonnaise.
4. Gently fold the seasoning mix into the crab meat. Form into 5 or 6 patties. Some of the local restaurants might make 8 crab cakes out of a pound and serve two to a meal.

To cook, either fry in a non-stick skillet in 2 tbsp canola oil or cook as I do in the broiler for 5 minutes to the side. The crab meat is already cooked so were trying to get the crab cake to setup and turn a golden brown.

Serve with tarter sauce on a hamburger roll or not. Typically served with freshly steamed corn on the cob.

[KYHeirloomer]

Ironically, considering that it's a Baltimore company, the "official" crabcake recipe, as published by the Maryland Office of Seafood Marketing, contains no Old Bay seasoning. Go figure!

Folks who are new to crabcakes should know that it works better if you chill the formed cakes before frying.

A really great way to serve them is to top a fried green tomato slice with a crabcake, then lather on remoulade sauce. A little bit of heaven on a plate.

[oldbay]

Well, there are other spices for crab meat made in Baltimore including JO Spice and Baltimore Spice so the state is probably being careful not to promote any one company. I have a friend that works at McCormick (McCormick now makes Old Bay Seasoning) who prefers JO Spices no-salt crab seasoning. And Old Bay came out with a lower salt version last spring.

Personally, I like Old Bay (can you guess!) and don't think it's salty. I've bought crab seasoning in bags at the local wharf that were just loaded with salt. Now those work fine with steaming crabs but you can't then convert their use to other recipes because they are 1/3 to 1/2 salt.

Lots of places around here have Old Bay out on the table to serve with whatever you want including the Subway Sandwich shops so it's quite a widely used seasoning 'round here and is my personal preference with crabs and crabcakes. On the boardwalk in Ocean City, it's the secret to the Boardwalk Fries.

[KYHeirloomer]

I'm with you on that. I love Old Bay, and use it on losts of things.

Celery salt is listed as the first ingredient on the Old Bay can. And it's the only salt ingredient. So I don't understand when people say it's too salty. As you point out, most seafood seasonings are considerably more heavy on the salt.

Ah, well. Let them skip the Old Bay, my friend. More for you and me.

[oldbay]

Everything in moderation ... Old Bay is said to have started in the bars of Baltimore and used as a way to get the early industrial era guys to eat more crabs (which were supposedly offered for free) and drink more beer. The amount of sodium in any recipe using Old Bay depends on how much seasoning you add. A 1/4 or 1/2 tsp of Old Bay is pretty low on salt.

[DCMerkle]

My grandfather was from the eastern shore in Maryland. There was no way we could make crab cakes or steam crabs without Old Bay. I tried Phillips one time and I'll never do that again. It had more salt then spice and it just didn't seem a Maryland tradition.

DCMerkle

[MsMai]

salt added to the Old Bay before putting it in the steaming crabs as being a part of the Old Bay Seasoning?? I have never purchased Old Bay that had too much salt in it. I have been buying and using it since I came to MD in 1968. I add a lot of salt to the Old Bay and all the folks I know who steam crabs, including seafood restaurants, do as well I cannot imagine crabs being steamed without it. I use Old Bay in crab cakes and many other dishes unrelated to seafood and do not find it too salty for that either.

[Mama Mangia]

Crabcakes

Makes 10.

1 pound lump crabmeat
2 cups Panko Japanese bread crumbs
1/2 cup finely diced Spanish onions
2/3 cup finely diced red, green and yellow bell peppers
1 jalapeno, seeded and finely diced
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup pasteurized eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon Old Bay seasoning
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Scant teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Scant teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
2 - 3 T. fresh cilantro, finely chopped

In one large clean bowl combine mayonnaise, eggs, lemon juice, Tabasco, Worcestershire sauce, Old Bay seasoning, salt, pepper, onions and peppers and cilantro. Mix thoroughly.
Add bread crumbs and fold in completely. Gently fold in the lump crab keeping the pieces as large as possible.
Using a large tablespoon or ice cream scoop portion the crab cake mixture into 3 inches in diameter by 3/4 inch high cakes.
Lightly dust each cake with flour and drop in a hot (365 degrees F) fryer or skillet. Cook thoroughly or until each side is golden brown.

Makes 10 crab cakes.

[KYHeirloomer]

Mama, have you actually used this recipe? Reason I ask is that's an awful lot of breading for a pound of crabmeat. Good crabcakes typically contain from 1/2 to 1 cup of breadcrumbs per pound of crab; the less the better. You want just enough filler to bind everything together and no more.

I'd also question the yeild. Recipes using one pound of crabmeat typical yeild 4-6 crabcakes. So, unless we're talking appetiser size, ten is really pushing the envelope---even with that incredible amount of filler.

[Mama Mangia]

It's all a matter of taste - ditto with size.

If a recipe tells me tomake 1-inch meatballs - do you think I do????