Make Ahead

All-American Crab Cakes

by:
October  4, 2022
0
0 Ratings
All-American Crab Cakes
Photo by thirschfeld
  • Makes 10 to 12 cakes
Author Notes

I can't tell you how many times I made crab cakes while working at different restaurants. I am pretty sure even I don't want to know. What I do know is many times they had lots of flavors sans one, crab and I often thought the cakes were more bread crumb than crab. So here is a quick, easy, and very crab tasting recipe that can be made any night of the week. This recipe makes a lot of cakes but realize you can make the cakes and freeze them in sets of 4 cakes or whatever works for you. —thirschfeld

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • 1/2 cup yellow onion, fine dice
  • 1/2 cup celery, fine dice
  • 2 teaspoons garlic, finely minced
  • grape seed oil
  • 1 pound pasteurized crab meat, or fresh if you live on a coast
  • 24 saltines, crushed
  • 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
  • 1‑1/2 teaspoons Old Bay seasoning
  • 1 tablespoon fresh flat leaf parsley, minced
  • 2 large eggs
  • kosher salt and fresh ground pepper
Directions
  1. Place a medium sized sauté pan over medium high heat. Add a glug of oil to the pan and give it time to heat. Add onion, celery and garlic. Cook the vegetables gently until translucent. Do not let them brown, adjust the heat if need be. When finished let the vegetables cool.
  2. Place the cooled vegetables into a large mixing bowl. Add crab, cracker crumbs, mayonnaise, Old Bay, parsley, and eggs. Season with 1/2 teaspoon of salt and a few grinds of black pepper. It's nice to bite into meaty crab pieces of cake, so gently turn the mixture with your hands being careful not to break the crab meat.
  3. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, set it into the refrigerator, and let it rest for 1 hour to over night.
  4. Place a large skillet over medium high heat. Add a good glug of oil so there is a thin layer across the bottom surface of the pan.
  5. Gently place 4 patties into the pan. You don't want to crowd the. Sauté until dark. Gently turn and do the same. Remove the patties from the pan. Either keep them warm in a 200 degree oven while you sauté more or serve them immediately.
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4 Reviews

ktr
ktr March 9, 2016
Do you recomend frying them and then freezing? Or freezing them prior to frying?
 
thirschfeld
thirschfeld March 9, 2016
That is a great question. I like to freeze them before cooking but I would imagine they would freeze well after too. The only problem I could see is the cakes might dry out when reheating them.
 
ktr
ktr March 10, 2016
That's makes perfect sense. Thanks!
 
Smaug
Smaug March 9, 2016
Someday, some brave soul will publish a crab cake recipe without mayonnaise. I've never weighed the meat from a crab, but it's not very much- I doubt if more than 1/6 of the weight is meat. With fresh Dungeness crab running at about $7-8 a pound in the SF area (and King crab no cheaper with nowhere near the flavor), this would be a very expensive recipe on this coast. I think I'll stick to eating it straight with red sauce.