The Crab Cake Guy

Crab Cakes Baltimore
courtesy of real-restaurant-recipes.com

“Crab Cakes Baltimore” is a crab cake recipe as originally written in 1932 and it comes from the Lord Baltimore Hotel. “Take one pound of crab meat for each four crab cakes. Put crab meat into mixing bowl, add one and one-half teaspoons salt, and two teaspoons white pepper, one teaspoon English dry mustard and two teaspoons Worcestershire sauce, one yolk of egg and one soup spoon cream sauce or mayonnaise, one teaspoon chopped parsley. Mix well, making four crab cakes, press hard together, dip into flour, then into beaten eggs, then into bread crumbs. Fry them in hot grease pan.”

This recipe is really the basis for most recipes written since, including the one my restaurant guests have voted as the beat restaurant recipe for crab cakes.

Ingredients
2 eggs
1/4 cup mayonnaise
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard (this instead of English dry mustard is my variation on traditional recipes)
1 teaspoon Worcestershire
1 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1 pinch of cayenne
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 pounds Dungeness crab meat (or lump crab meat from the best crab available to you)
2 tablespoons finely ground cracker crumbs
Clarified butter as needed for frying (sauteing)
bread crumbs (Japanese bread crumbs) as needed

Directions

1. Whisk the eggs in a mixing bowl to blend

2. Add mayonnaise, mustard, Worcestershire, Old Bay seasoning, pepper, cayenne and salt and whisk until smooth

3. Mix in crab and cracker crumbs

4. Form into 16 small (1/2 inch thick) crab cakes if serving as an appetize or 8 cakes if using as an entree

5. Place on a sheet pan covered with parchment paper or wax paper and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes

6. Coat the crab cakes with Panko bread crumbs

7. Fry in clarified butter until golden brown on both sides

8. Serve with tartar sauce or cocktail sauce or your favorite sauce

Additional Resources:
I Love Crab Cakes! 50 Recipes for an American Classic by Tom Douglas and Shelley Lance
The Crab Cake Guy’s Recipes
The Crab Lover’s Book: Recipes & More by Mary Ethelyn Orso
Ocean Friendly Cuisine: Sustainable Seafood Recipes From The World’s Finest Chefs by James O. Fraioli and Cousteau