Delicious Crab Cakes With Lump Crab Meat

Our son and UT graduate, Rhett, drove into Knoxville from his home in South Carolina to go to the UT/USC football game with some of his fraternity brothers this past weekend.  On Sunday, he and Beth came to down to our place for a short visit before heading home.

You may recall on my last post for Crab Imperial Stuffed Crappie And Shrimp that I stated “One of these days I'm going to turn loose of some of the kids inheritance and buy some jumbo lump crab meat.” 

When they walked in the door, Rhett handed me a small paper bag and said with a grin that he had a gift for me so I wouldn’t have to spend their inheritance.  I opened it to find two eight-ounce containers of jumbo lump crab meat.

So I set about finding a recipe with little filler and not too many flavors to compete with the crab and the one I chose for The Very Best Crab Cakes came from “The Suburban Soapbox” blog.  Her blog description is “Maryland style Crab Cakes made with jumbo lump crab meat and very little filler! The BEST crab cake recipe you'll ever make.”  I followed Kellie’s recipe except I used crushed Ritz crackers rather than Panko breadcrumbs. 

The Very Best Crab Cakes – Adapted from The Suburban Soapbox

The Ingredients:

1 pound jumbo lump crab meat, picked over for shells

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon hot sauce, I use Tabasco

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1 tsp fresh lemon zest

1/8 teaspoon fresh ground pepper

2 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley

1/4 cup panko bread crumbs (crushed Ritz crackers)

1 tablespoon olive oil

The Instructions:

1. In a medium bowl, carefully pick over the crab and remove any shells.

2. In a small bowl, stir together the mayonnaise, Dijon, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, egg, pepper, lemon zest and parsley.

3. Add the mayonnaise mixture to the crab and, carefully, fold together being careful not to break up the crab meat too much. 

4. Gently fold in the cracker crumbs.

5. Form into patties (I made five large ones) and transfer to a baking sheet lined with parchment. Chill for 15-20 minutes.

6. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.

7.Add the crab cakes and cook over medium heat until golden, approximately 3-4 minutes. Turn the crab cakes over with a spatula. Cook until golden brown, crispy and cooked through, approximately 3 minutes.  I had trouble flipping the last one but it still ate fine.

8. Transfer to a plates and serve immediately with your favorite sauce, if desired.  I used remoulade.

The Verdict:

They were delicious and I’ll use this recipe again with a little less lemon zest make sure the crab is pretty dry.  It would be interesting to have a taste test using claw in some and lump in the others.  Thanks, Rhett for making this meal happen.

No leftovers for breakfast as the crab cakes were all we ate for supper.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

10/5/23 meal date