Crab Cakes

[Kim Shook]

On 2/13/2023 at 5:41 PM, AlaMoi said:

absolutely on the less is more side....

I've tried so many recipes with mayo-and-beyond.... it's ridiculous.

 

I use lump crab meat - for two,,, one pound  - I separate about 1/2 of that for chopping and dicing.

the variation of "chunk size" is in my experience very important for "holding" the crab cake together.

all big chunks - they fall apart....

 

using one beaten egg per pound - salt+pepper+Old Bay

formed in a ring, looks like  (with pimento...):

Other than the pimento, they look great.  Sorry, I grew up going to the Eastern Shore of Delmarva and I'm a purist. 

[weinoo]

1 hour ago, Kim Shook said:

Other than the pimento, they look great.  Sorry, I grew up going to the Eastern Shore of Delmarva and I'm a purist. 

As you should be!

[AlaMoi]

DW did a pimento cheese sandwich, the left overs were looking for a home . . .  normally not an add.

 

I spend my summers on the Delaware Bay - the Del side was less commercially fished and we would get a bushel/2 of mega-crabs in about 30 minutes...

 

had relatives in the Salisbury/Mardela Spring area - altho we ate more oyster than crab when visiting....

[AlaMoi]

for decades I struggled to make crab cakes ala "my kid recollection"

tried bazillions of "recipes" - and pretty much all of the mayo approach types failed "uber miserably"

DW found a 3x5 car tucked in as a bookmark in a totally unrelated book, from her mother....

it's working . . presented here with a few undocumented updates and 'tasty' extrapolations.

 

 

1 lb / 450 g steamed and picked crab meat
2 eggs - large
1/4 c finely diced onion 35-40g
1/4 c "crumbs"
 side notation, and highly recommended:  Corn Flake crumbs  20-25g(*)
3 T / 39g mayo
1 T / 15g yellow mustard
light sprinkle of Old Bay for seasoning, approx. 1 teaspoon per pound, to taste.

 

recommended:
"blue claw" aka Callinectes sapidus; "lump" size, "Jumbo lump" not needed
explicitly DIS-recommended - swimming/asian/south american = Portunus armatus formerly Portunus pelagicus.
(sigh) this is the typical supermarket crab, pasteurized in cans .... it does not have the same taste as real blue claw crab;

if you grew up with Delaware/Chesapeake Bay crab - you'll be sorely disappointed with the 'swimming crab'

and I wasted a lot of $/fake crab can and time trying to replicate the 'real deal'

 

technique:
drain the crab meat.  depending on vendor/source, it will have more/less water content.
put into an overly large bowl, cursory check for shell "oops."
use a fork to break up any clumps of crab meat.

 

sprinkle the diced onion/crumbs/Old Bay over the crab meat, use a spatulas or spurtle to fold and blend with the crab meat.
"stirring" is not a good method - avoid breaking up the crab meat.

in a smaller bowl, use a hand/electric whisk to combine / beat eggs + mayo + mustard
a homogeneous mixture works best.

 

spread the liquid mix over the crab and toss to coat and combine.
the crab mix is "loose" - portion it out for 4 to 6 crab cakes, lightly hand squeeze to compact into patties.

(*)  I crush extra corn flake crumbs 'just in case' more are needed to eliminate free liquids in the patty mix.

(recommended) refrigerate the patties for at least two hours, so they "set up"

tasty option adds:
 - diced pimento
 - capers
 - 0.5 tsp creamy horseradish to egg/mayo/mustard mix

 

looks like:

(+ pan steamed spinach + cornbread . . .)

 

Edited November 12, 2023 by AlaMoi (log)

[haresfur]

That looks fantastic! Of course there are the heathens on the US west coast who like Dungeness crab 🙂.

 

I'm a bit surprised about the mayo but have never actually made crab cakes. I had some great ones out in suburban Maryland visiting DC last June. The manager of the restaurant harangued the kitchen to make them for us, even though it was lunch and they were a dinner special.

 

Partner used to board her horse at a very nice property north of DC. A woman who lived nearby would come around and sell home made crab cakes that seemed to be basically all lump crab. Partner was out of town and I managed to wrangle a weekday dinner invite for crab cakes and champagne. One of those all time meal highlights.

 

I wonder if panko would make good crumbs. That's what we use in meatballs.

[AlaMoi]

arrrgh!

been to the west coast. 

done had dungeness crab.  made a point of it . . .

on the plate, in a sourdough bowl . . .

symps to the west coast crowd - but dungeness just ain't real crab.....

 

panko will work as crumb -

as would (staled) white/french/whole wheat . . .  bread .

but me thinks the corn flake crumbs be one of the nuances of this recipe.

 

then again, I'm pretty dang sure no one on the Delaware Bay side of the world used corn flake crumbs . . .

 

 

[heidih]

Us "heathens' don't have access generally to other crabs. We have local rock cabs but that requires sea

food market visit. Despite being a major coast our seafood access can suck.Though Quality is still a treasure.  http://qualityseafood.com/

Edited November 12, 2023 by heidih (log)

[Margaret Pilgrim]

We in NorCal are hampered by fishing regulations that limit harvest times for Dungeness crab, the ONLY crab worth the trouble/cost.     😛   Perhaps my favorite treatment id Lee Bailey's "Baked Crabmeat" which is essentially crabmeat bound with a very small amount of mayo, formed into cakes and baked on a sheet pan.   I follow his instruction but also dust with panko and pan fry.   

 

When you use dungeness, you don't need/want a lot of gratuitous ingredients.   😏

 

eta, crab comes in a shell, not a can.

Edited November 12, 2023 by Margaret Pilgrim (log)

[donk79]

I am no master crab cake chef, but I will say that the best crabcakes around the Chesapeake are almost always broiled, not fried.  I think frying requires the introduction of too much binder, and a Delmarva crabcakes generally seeks as little binder as possible.

[AlaMoi]

broiled or fried, either way they have to be flipped . . . so "binder" can be essentially same.

what really makes a really bad crab cake is too much filler - it's a crab cake, not a bread crumb cake . . .

[donk79]

No, broiled crabcakes are not flipped.

[donk79]

To be clear, the crabcakes I am thinking about would never make it onto a sandwich.   They would never be a to be picked up in a single piece with a fork.  They are instead an excuse to eat an obscene amount of blue crab meat, with a perfect light seasoning.  They often are made with a full half pound of crab.  There's no justification for it and it's absolutely amazing!

[Katie Meadow]

12 hours ago, gfweb said:

It was probably bananas. Baltimore cuisine has always been idiosyncratic.

Now that we have thoroughly pounded Chicken Maryland and dissected the implication of Chicken MarylandS it's time to turn our attention to the city of Baltimore. What came across my inbox from the NYT this morning via Sam Sifton was Pierre Franey's recipe for Crab Cakes Baltimore Style. The comments from readers are simply hilarious. Franey, as you might know, is not from B-more, and natives of that city don't take kindly to his take on crab cakes. Pick your crab-meat, and don't let anyone tell you what to do with it.

[rotuts]

@Katie Meadow

 

love to see that Rx.  I do subscribe to the NYT  but don't get email tips.

 

Craig Claiborne had a crab cake Rx , in th NYTimes magazine 

 

about 1980 +/-  that used fresh cornflakes .  maybe not Bol-more

 

but love it , and lost it.

[C. sapidus]

2 hours ago, Katie Meadow said:

. . . What came across my inbox from the NYT this morning via Sam Sifton was Pierre Franey's recipe for Crab Cakes Baltimore Style. The comments from readers are simply hilarious. Franey, as you might know, is not from B-more, and natives of that city don't take kindly to his take on crab cakes. Pick your crab-meat, and don't let anyone tell you what to do with it.

 

If I have the right recipe (see below), Franey uses about 3x the amount of saltine crackers compared with my usual recipe. A good crab cake has barely enough filler to keep everything from falling apart. Strong demerit right off the bat.

 

2 hours ago, rotuts said:

@Katie Meadow

 

love to see that Rx.  I do subscribe to the NYT  but don't get email tips.

 

 

Dunno if the same one, but here is a Pierre Franey recipe for crab cakes:

 

NYT: Crab Cakes Baltimore-style by Pierre Franey

[gfweb]

1 hour ago, C. sapidus said:

 

If I have the right recipe (see below), Franey uses about 3x the amount of saltine crackers compared with my usual recipe. A good crab cake has barely enough filler to keep everything from falling apart. Strong demerit right off the bat.

 

 

Dunno if the same one, but here is a Pierre Franey recipe for crab cakes:

 

NYT: Crab Cakes Baltimore-style by Pierre Franey

 

Franey's recipe has too much filler for my taste and looks overcooked, but so do many things passed off as crab cakes in that fair city.

 

I like Georges Perrier's crab cake that is bound with shrimp mousse, very lightly spiced and served with a subtle mustard cream.

[Katie Meadow]

4 hours ago, C. sapidus said:

 

If I have the right recipe (see below), Franey uses about 3x the amount of saltine crackers compared with my usual recipe. A good crab cake has barely enough filler to keep everything from falling apart. Strong demerit right off the bat.

 

 

Dunno if the same one, but here is a Pierre Franey recipe for crab cakes:

 

NYT: Crab Cakes Baltimore-style by Pierre Franey

Yep, same recipe, same hilarious comments. When it comes to crab cakes I agree: lotsa crab and as little filler as you can get away with..