Recipes > Fresh Crab Cakes
This crowd pleasing appetizer is served with a simple dill dressing.
Curtis Webb
- Serves: 4
- Active Time: 40 mins
- Total Time: 50 mins
- Views: 52,361
- Success Rating: 96% (?)
Steps
Step 1: Preparing the Dressing
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise
- 1 tbsp fresh dill
- 1/8 tsp sea salt
- 1/8 tsp white pepper
- 1 tsp fresh lemon juice
Method
Mix the mayonnaise, dill, salt, pepper and lemon juice together. Set aside.
Step 2: Making the Crab Cakes
- 4 tbsp red bell pepper
- 4 tbsp fresh chives
- 10 oz fresh crab meat
- 1/2 cup dry breadcrumbs
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
Method
To start the crab cakes, pre-heat the oven to 325° degrees Fahrenheit.
Cut off the end of the pepper and remove the ribs/seeds. Cut into brunoise and finely dice the chives.
Place the crab meat into a medium bowl and break it up. Make sure to check for and remove any pieces of shell. Add the breadcrumbs, mayonnaise, chives, red pepper, salt, pepper and mix well.
Divide the mixture up into equal portions and form into little cakes.
Make sure to squeeze them a bit so they don’t fall apart during cooking.
These cakes can be made a few hours in advance of cooking them. Cover and store in the refrigerator until you are ready to cook them.
Step 3: Finishing the Crab Cakes
- 1/2 cup dry breadcrumbs (for coating)
- 3 tbsp clarified butter
Method
When you are ready to cook the crab cakes, sprinkle the breadcrumbs onto a plate. Roll each cake in the breadcrumbs to coat.
Heat a non-stick fry pan over high heat and add the clarified butter. Heat until it just begins to smoke.
Add the crab cakes and then turn the heat down to medium. Let cook until golden brown on the one side. Meanwhile, spray a baking tray with non-stick spray and set aside. Once the bottom of the crab cakes are golden, gently flip and transfer to the baking tray. Place the crab cakes into the oven for about 10 to 12 minutes to finish cooking.
Once ready, serve immediately with a dollop of dill dressing and garnish with a small sprig of fresh dill and radish sprouts. These delicate crab cakes are fantastic and can be served either as a light lunch or as an appetizer.
Chef's Notes
- by Curtis Webb
- •
- May 11, 2007
You can serve them either as a light lunch with a small salad or as an appetizer.
For a little twist you could also add shrimp to this recipe. Also, for a little bit of kick you can add either crushed chili’s or minced jalapeño.
44 Comments
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I haven't made this recipe yet, but it seems to be missing some information -- what temperature do you set your oven at when baking them off? Is it a medium oven 350ish? or a hot oven 400+? -
Print/view recipe (which is the print icon), or "Step Recipe" to the right of Step 2 "Making the Crab Cakes, both say to Preheat oven to 325° F. Good luck! These are delicious. -
Do you have any recommendations for bread crumbs? What type of bread did you use? I've never used bread crumbs. Thanks for any assistance! -
The best breadcrumbs to use for this recipe are dried, which also happen to be the easiest to find. Any Italian Deli and most Grocery stores will sell them. Or you could make your own.
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Nice work Curtis. Thanks for sharing. Always wondered how these were made. P
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Not sure if it would work for this recipe, but I do a similar version with panko. Great texture. I'm going to try this recipe as is, though! -
The cakes were great, boyfriend loved them. And with the plating tips they look like they took so much more effort and time than they did ;)
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not impressed, we make awesome dungeness crabcakes with togarashi kaffir etc, on a bed of chipotle hollandaise. Sorry this is boring.
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Anyone else tried these? If so, what did you think? I personally loved them. -
I agree that you don't need crab legs or claw meat, we just shell out the fresh Dungeness and use the body meat. If you try a little togarashi and kaffir lime leaf you will be surprised at how it takes these up a few noches. We place in forms and fry in grapeseed oil or rice bran oil or ghee. Chipotle Hollandaise is amazing, but we are into complex subtle flavours all in balance. Our recipe is not unlike yours just has a little tist with bai magroot and togarashi. Bon Appetite
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I have made these a few times and everyone really likes them. I like the simplicity of the crab but the chipotle sauce sounds nice.
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My husband loved them but I felt something was missing. Maybe I should try spicing it up. Also - active time was more like 40 minutes, not 20. -
The crab cakes turned out perfect - my wife loved them. Very tasty and great consistency. Will defenitely do this recipe again. The drill down info on clarified butter was good as I had never done that before. -
Never have made anything with crab meat. How do I purchase it. Can I buy packaged or do i buy whole crab?
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I would suggest buying your crab meat already shelled. Any fish store should carry fresh crab meat. It typically does not come packaged, rather sold at the fish market by weight. Just ask for enough for the recipe. Keep in mind that some fish stores sell whole crab leg meat at a premium price (very expensive). You really don't care if the meat is broken up a bit as you are going to break it up anyway, so no need for this premium product. Tip: I prefer to buy fresh fish products on Wednesday's to Saturday's. Monday's in most fish stores is left-over day (not always). Typically, the fresh stuff comes into most stores on Tuesdays.
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I am on a low carb diet for diabetes, can the sprouted wheat bread be substituted for the bread crumbs? Any other suggestions??
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Rouxbe Staff
You can make breadcrumbs with any bread. Simply break it up and pulse it in the food processor, fresh, until semi-coarse. Let them dry a bit before using, or dry completely and store. Sprouted wheat breadcrumbs actually sound quite nice. -
The Hume's hosted Sunday dinner and served these as our starters - AMAZING! -
I've just tried these for the second time and they're absolutely gorgeous. One thing I have to ask is how do you make them hold together a bit better because although I've stopped them falling apart when shallow frying they are still very fragile. I've tried using less mayonnaise but they still feel very fragile. Thanks, John -
Rouxbe Staff
The very best way to keep them together is to rest them in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour, even longer, well pressed and covered. The longer the crumbs soak the cake's moisture, the better they hold. Also, make sure your knife cuts are fine as large cuts will make the cake more crumbly. Here's a great example of doing little things well and letting time and patience do what it's supposed to do. The ideal cake is supposed to feel fragile, but stays together when cooked.
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Hi Tony and thanks very much for the advice. I shall be making them again on the weekend and let you know how I get on. Once again thanks for the help and an amazing site.
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I took Mary-anne's idea and together with my most useful kitchen tool, Google, improvised a togarashi seasoning out of sambal oelek, minced garlic, fresh ginger, black seasame seeds and a drop or two of orange oil. A little bite of divinity! Thanks for the recipe - it's a keeper! -
After I have freeze my crab cake, do I have to thaw it first, or can I start frying right after I take it out from the freezer?
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After I have freeze my crab cake, do I have to thaw it first, or can I start frying right after I take it out from the freezer?
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Rouxbe Staff
Always thaw food thoroughly before pan frying. Make sure to thaw the food in the refrigerator. You may want to review the lesson on How to Pan Fry - we talk about why not to fry frozen foods. Cheers! -
Ok thank you Kimberley.
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THANK YOU CURTIS MY PROBLEM WITH WEBSITE IS SOLVED THANK YOU PAT AMORE
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I found the dill dressing to be a little too strong for my tastes, so I'll have to tone it down a bit next time, but the crab cakes were delicate and tasty. I also didn't have any kaiware sprouts, so I just used dill for garnish. Since I didn't have any on hand, I made the mayonnaise myself using Rouxbe's mayonnaise recipe. Here's a picture of how they came out! http://gallery.me.com/rshemeley#100100/IMG_0011 -
Top notch Rob. Your pictures of the crab cakes look very good. Also, I have to admit that I did look at your other food photos as well...I "love" the pizza shot. Cheers!
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Thank you so much for the compliment! It means a lot to me. :) I'm still very much a beginner, but thanks to Rouxbe I've made great progress. That pizza was every bit as delicious as it looked! :D The sauce was the Rouxbe tomato sauce recipe. It was perfect. To keep this post on topic, I'll also add that the homemade mayo seemed to hold the crab cakes together better than I expected considering I didn't break up the crab or dice the pepper quite as small as I wanted.
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This is almost identical to the way I make my crab cakes. However, being from Maryland, you *must* add Old Bay seasoning, and even a bit of hot sauce for a slight 'kick' :)
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Hi we have been doing some trials of these crab cakes. We are buying the fresh crab. First we take the meat of and cook it on a pan. Then we follow your recipe. Are we cooking the crab properlly? Thanks for your advice. -
Sorry not quite sure of the question. Are you saying that you are starting with raw crab and then removing the meat from the shells and then cooking it in a pan? If so, I would say to cook the crab in the shell and then remove it afterwards. Cheers!
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I made this recipe last night substituting Panko breadcrumbs. It was amazing served with Garlic butter sauce....YUMMY! Thanks for the great recipe..
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I loved this recipe. I left out the dill and it added more garlic. It was great and my 5 and 8 year olds loved them.
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I made these crab cakes as an entree with no regrets. They are very simple and fresh tasting. It was exceptional. Next time I will add a little old bay to the crab to give it some md flavor. I also used whole wheat bread crumbs to make it a bit healthier. -
Greek yoghurt instead of mayo with a dollop of horseradish. Limes and lime rind shavings instead of lemon juice, salt and white pepper. If available, mix in two or three very finely diced curry leaves. Yum. -
I did use grapeseed oil and packaged crab meat. This was the first recipe I cooked from Rouxbe and loved it. I doubled the recipe, cooked for a party of six, it was a hit. Everyone loved these crab cakes, just enough flavor and the dressing was fantastic. I personally do not like sea food and I devoured two cakes, that says a lot. -
I made these for the first time tonight. My family and I loved them. Question! How do you keep them from falling apart and how do you get the sides more crispy? -
Rouxbe Staff
These are rather "tall" in their shape so the sides are not easily crisped around the edges and they are also a bit delicate as a result. To make them less delicate, try to make them a bit smaller. Some might add more binder to "tighten" the mix, but that may also make it drier. A gentle hand will be the most important way to keep it intact. ~Ken -
I made these again tonight for dinner. My family and I loved them. I had them with herb and butter rice and a dinner salad. Lots of color and freshness. The mistake I made last time was I fried instead of baked them. I baked them on 400F for 12 min. They came out crisp and delicious. Cant wait to make them again.
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Hi Crab meat is not easily found where I am. If I wanted to use raw shrimp, how do you suggest cooking them before mixing with other ingredients. Poaching?
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Can we have recipes in metric as well as imperial please? Europeans have no idea what a cup is & my cooker uses celsius. Thanks
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Rouxbe Staff
Simon, Thanks for your message. I'm happy to consider your request. Eric
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