Ok.. making a crab cake tonight. Advice?

i use to live in annapolis maryland and learned to make my crabcakes there... per 1 lb i use 1 egg, and just enough mayo to bind it. parsley, small diced red or yellow pepper( not green), and old bay seasoning...that's it...no basil, no cream...form your cakes and pat in cracker crums(saltines), not bread crumbs. if you don't have cracker crumbs, use panko. after forming the patties let them sit in your fridge for an hour or two or three to 'form', then fry to that beautiful golden brown...lemon wedges are essential as well as a really good sauce....what kind of sauce are you making?okay, now i want some and i just happen to have a lb in my fridge..yeah,goody goody...

joey

You can do this a few ways..

Breadcrumbs, aromatics, oil, and egg yolk.

Riced potatoes, and aromatics, and egg yolk.

Chilled risotto, and egg yolk

(herbs and spices considered aromatics in this case)

i personally love the potato option. If you're not using the breadcrumbs as the base, i still use them to help make a crispy exterior.  Form your cakes, and let them chill and set up for at least an hour.  Reserving the whites from those eggs you needed to crack open for yolks, just lightly coat your cakes, and roll them in seasoned bread crumbs.  Bread crumbs with paprika make for very nice color. If you want a high percentage of meat, make sure it isn't too chunky. I've seen crab cakes refuse to bind, not necessarily because there's too much meat, but the chunks are waaay too heavy for the base to hold together.

Eastshore  try this

LUMP CRAB MEAT PICKED OR YOUR CRAB MEAT TYPE

1,/2 PEPPER, 3 STALKS CELERY, 2 SHALLOTS HINT OF GARLIC ALL CHOPPED FINE AND THEN LIGHTLY SAUTEED.

GRIND SALTINES  OR  USE JAPANESE PANKO BREAD CRUMBS

1 WHOLE EGG BEATEN,ABOUT 3/4 CUP TO A CUP GOOD MAYO

OLD BAY SEASONING TO TASTE

DIJON MUSTARD,TABASSCO, WORSTISHIRE

HOLD BACK CRUMBS BUT TOSS EVERYTHING ELSE TOGETHER IN LARGE SS BOWL

ADD CRUMBS TO DESIRED CONSISTANCY THEN REFRIGERATE A WHILE  DO NOT OVER TOSS AS YOU DO NOT WANT TO BREAK UP THE CRABMEAT

FORM INTO CAKES AND EITHER PRESS INTO  PANKO BREAD CRUMB OR LEAVE PLAIN REFRIG TILL FIRM

SAUTE TILL GOLDEN BROWN OR CAN BE BROILED

TRY NOT TO USE DRY STORE BOUGHT CRUMBS OR ITALIAN SEASONED CRUMBS

WORSE COMES TO WORSE GRIND YOUR OWN WHITE BREAD.

EASTSHORE

Remolaude is good, Sauce Nantua , lemon cream sauce, newburg sauce, mustard cream sauce  all are good  GOOD LUCK

They can be individually wrapped and frozen for future after cooking.

Surprised nobody has mentioned that no matter what other ingredients you use the crab should go in last. That way you can gently incorporate it, without breaking up the pieces.

In Maryland---the undisputed homeland of crab cakes---quality is determined by the amount of filler (i.e., breadcrumbs). The less filler the better the cake is considered to be.

And, as Joey points out, pre-chilling the formed patties is essential to good results.

I have a new appreciation for those that do pick the stuff.

Had to chuckle over this, Eastshores.

A few years back, while one of our annual fishing/crabbing trips to the Outer Banks, Friend Wife discovered that she actually enjoys picking crab. No kidding. She's probably the only person I know who feels that way. So now, we both catch 'em. I steam 'em, and then go fishing. When I return there's a big pile of fresh crabmeat waiting.

Hard to beat that.

eastshores,

i had to work last night so i just made my crabcakes this morning...they are in the fridge firming up. while there are many, many, many ways to make crabcakes, i do them the way the oldtimers in annapolis taught me...no fillers! they are crabcakes, not crabrice cakes or crabbreadcrumb cakes. personally i don't saute the peppers as i like the texture and slight crunch factor of the raw peppers. i usually do a few sauces to go with...a spicy chipotle cocktail sauce with crema, a more traditional tartar sauce, and a chile lime sauce...got some corn on the cob that i will grill up with some hatch green chile butter, got some shrimp cocktail and some beautiful vine ripe tomatoes.....oh yeah, and prosecco..am looking forward to all this simple perfection....enjoy yours as well...cheers!

joey

yo! you did good homeboy.....now i'm more excited that ever for dinner...seriously nice job... they are really, really, really beautiful...maybe even perfect...i do mine a bit bigger cuz i'm a piggy when it comes to seafood.....thanks for the pic

joey

Lookin' good, Eastshores!

'Course, I could do without all that garden truck myself. But each to his own.

keep that friend haha.

Well, we're in the 46th year of a trial marraige and are starting to think it's going to work out. So, yeah, I reckon I'll keep her.

Look good . Try making flatter and they will brown evenly, move around in pan as center of pan will usually be the hottest;  They make great sliders. yum, yum. and you can make mini for Hors D Ourves.

just to clarify as you can hopefully tell by my avatar, i'm very much a she!

joey

I like using a tool such as this to make my crab-cakes: 

All the cakes come out perfect uniform size and shape. Well .......... for me anyways. 

I use a simple ring mold...

It's funny, but I used to use a regular ring mold, but I find now that using the measurement thing is less work. I guess it's only important that we all enjoy a good crab cake. 

I sometime use scoops of different sizes then I press into panko. You can also use a jar lid.

Like Ed, I use scoops, then shape the cakes in my hands, just like making burgers. There is no significant difference in size.

Dishers (spring-driven scoops) are a great way to assure consistency in many food products. I have a range of them (they come in 40 different sizes, btw) and use them often for portion- and size-control.

Looks and sounds perfectly yummie, Eastshores!

I once used a left-over filling for crab ravioli and fried it in very small bits and served as amuse-gueule. It was a crab/ricotta/panko/eggyolk mixture.

But I'm sure gonna try your suggestions! Thanks.

unless you are making hundreds of them i can't imagine why you would use anything else but your hands! using anything but your hands takes the fun out of it, to me...like making meatballs...i like the feeling of rolling the cold meat around my palms making perfect or imperfect sized meatballs....who says they gotta be perfect anyway and why would it matter that they all look uniform?..as a matter of fact i like the irregularity of hand formed crabcakes and meatballs, and pancakes too for that matter....go figure!

joey

At work we didn't make hundreds, we made thousands .I even had an electric machine like a hamburger machine that made meatballs. Also an imported machine likeextruder that made franks in blankets. About  160 a minute.  Home I use scoops for size consistancy and then press them down  . The less I have to use my hands the better.