Basic Crab Cake

In order to appreciate what others have done with their crab cakes, you must first learn how to make them on your own.  Everyone has a secret recipe, as well as their own preferred style.  The Basic Crab Cake can be used as a base to start your own culinary explorations and experimentations.  Like a breadier crab cake?  Add more bread/bread crumbs.  Is saucier your style?  Try different blends of mayo and/or Dijon.  Add in other spices as well, such as Old Bay, garlic powder, etc.

To kick things off, we are going to go with a basic crab cake.  Here's what you need to get started:

1 egg
1 lb. crab meat
Bread crumbs (~1/2 cup to start) or 2 slices of bread with crusts cut off, ripped into small pieces
Spices (optional)
Oil

Step 1:  Crack the egg into a bowl and pour in some bread crumbs.  If using jumbo lump, you may want to beat the egg before adding the bread crumbs in order to minimize breakage.
Step 2:  Add crab meat and spices.  Carefully mix by hand until blended, adding more bread crumbs as needed/desired.
Step 3:  Refrigerate for at least 4 hours, for best results, chill overnight.
Step 4:  Form into patties and cook as desired:

Fried:  Use enough oil so that it covers the bottom half of the crab cake.  Depending on your stove, keep the heat to low or medium.  When in doubt, try cooking a small crab ball to test.  Cook each side until golden brown, about 1.5 - 2 minutes per side should do it (depending on your stove/heat settings/etc).

Oven:  Cook at 375˚ for 12 - 15 minutes until golden brown.

Behold, our results!   Our crab cake looks a little darker in color due to the seasonings chosen, which were 6 - 7 dashes of Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce and 3 - 4 dashes of Old Bay (using the small oval opening).  The two really complimented the flavor of the crab meat without overpowering or adding too much complexity.  Backfin crab meat was used during this trail run (mostly because of the available selection at the grocery store that day), but next time it'll be interesting to see what good quality jumbo lump will do to improve the results.  Also worth noting: safflower oil was used for frying.

The Crab Cake Review highly recommends using the Maryland Blue Crab whenever possible.  In this trial run, the CCR used Graham & Rollins blended backfin crab meat, found on ice in the fresh fish section of our local Safeway.  You can find packaged crab meat in other locations, such as a local market (Lexington Market, Cross St Market, Eastern Market, etc.), super market (Whole Foods, Safeway, etc.), or even at restaurant outlets like Mo's Seafood Market in Little Italy, or Faidley's in Lexington Market.

Always choose fresh, premium quality crab meat for best results.  If it's on ice, then it's a good start.  Beware of the retail packages found in the refrigerated sections of the fish section.  If that is your only choice, compare the ingredient labels.  For example, Safeway's Waterfront Bistro label sells jumbo lump crab meat in 8oz containers, but the crab used is blue swimmer, not Maryland blue.  (Maryland blue crabs have a more intense, sweeter flavor than other crab varieties, hence why Maryland is known the world over for their crabs/crab cakes.)  The other thing to watch out for is the opaque packaging with a small window in the lid, allowing the packer to hide smaller or broken pieces of crab meat underneath the few lumps placed on top.