14 Crab Cake Recipes to Try at Home (2024)

FAQs

What do you put on crab cakes when you eat them? ›

Some popular toppings for crab cakes include remoulade sauce, tartar sauce, aioli, lemon wedges, and fresh herbs such as parsley or chives. Some people also like to add a drizzle of hot sauce or a sprinkle of Old Bay seasoning for an extra kick of flavor.

Are crab cakes better baked or fried? You can either bake or fry these crab cakes. My personal preference is to bake them because it's easier (no risk of them falling apart when you flip them) and they are less prone to drying out (it's easy to overcook the crab cakes when frying them in a pan).

It's very important to use fresh, good-quality lump crab meat. Look for fresh-off-the-boat crab meat, which is sold in a clear plastic container, usually resting on ice in the seafood department. It's expensive, but one pound is enough to make six generous crab cakes (or 12 mini ones).

Remove crabcakes from refrigeration and allow to come to room temperature. Place crabcakes on a cookie sheet. Bring oven to 350° temperature. Turn oven off and place crabcakes in hot oven for approximately 10 minutes.

While egg is a popular choice, it alone is not enough to make crab cakes retain their shape. A starch binder is also required. The key here is maintaining the proper balance, as too little binder means your crab cakes will fall apart, but too much will give your crab cakes an unfortunate texture.

How do you fry crab cakes and also retain its original shape? Try adding a bit more flour, and chilling before cooking. Butter is best choice over oil for frying. You may want to add some bread or cracker crumbs as well.

When it comes to cooking seafood, Ramsay knows a thing or two. Crab cakes are often on the menu during his "Hell's Kitchen" dinner services (though he isn't always pleased with how they turn out), and he's certainly sampled enough versions of the dish during his "Kitchen Nightmares" restaurant visits through the years.

Two Styles of Crab Cake

These are the boardwalk style and restaurant style. The restaurant style is also known as the gourmet style and does not rely on breading; at the very least, it's not supposed to. Instead, they are broiled over open flames or cooked in a buttered pan.

Refrigerate for 30 minutes: This is a key step in the recipe. Make sure the crab cake mixture is cold before you shape it into individual cakes. There is little filler in this recipe, so the cakes will fall apart if the mixture is not refrigerated before cooking. Grease baking pan & preheat oven.

What is the difference between Maryland crab cakes and regular crab cakes? ›

The Differences In Maryland Crab Cakes

For starters, they typically use more meat and less other filling compared to regular crab cakes. Of course, every recipe is different, but Maryland's versions really allow the crab meat to shine and only use enough fillers to hold the cakes together.

If the goal is to deep-fry your crab cakes, then the answer is easy. You'll probably want to use a mild vegetable oil. Perhaps most importantly, butter's low smoke point makes it incompatible with the high-heat required for this technique. Another reason is simple — the price.

You can pan fry crab cakes in both oil and butter or either one. Butter adds flavor but refined olive oil, canola oil, ghee, and peanut oil have a higher smoke points. The best of both worlds is to use half butter and half oil.

The Cost of Catching and Processing Crab Meat. One of the main reasons why crab meat is expensive is due to the high cost of catching and processing the crabs. Crabbing is a labor-intensive process that requires skilled workers to operate specialized equipment such as crab traps and crab pots.

Tartar sauce is a worthy partner for a batch of perfectly seasoned crab cakes. Along with remoulade, it's one of the sauces you're most likely to see served with crab cakes in American restaurants. Tartar sauce is somewhat similar to remoulade, but it's stripped down to basic components.

Tartar sauce is made with three main ingredients: mayonnaise, shallots and capers. Tartar sauce can also include the following additions: Pickles: finely chopped pickles, cornichons or sweet pickle relish. Mustard: Dijon or whole grain.