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Old Bay Crab Cakes
What name is more 15.00 associated with crab cakes (and crabs in general) than Old Bay? Made by McCormick right here in Baltimore, Old Bay seasoning (originally named "Delicious Brand Shrimp and Crab Seasoning") has been around for over 70 years. Make no mistake, it is superbaisle on everything from crabs and shrimp, to french fries and mac and cheese. So imagine our surprise when we noticed Old Bay Brand crab cakes in the frozen food aisle. Not just an off-brand that uses Old Bay, but the actual brand. Surely these must live up to the box promises of "premium restaurant quality" jumbo lump crab? Well, we took the bait. Read on to find out if they live up to the name.
Old Bay crab cakes are made with lump crab meat, jumbo lump crab meat, mayonnaise, pasteurized eggs, bread crumbs, seafood seasoning, prepared mustard, and parsley. Box comes with 2 - 4oz cakes. Instructions are provided for broiling from frozen, or pan frying from thawed. Review is for crab cakes broiled from frozen. While not made by Old Bay, the seasoning is licensed to Crab Source, who makes and sells the crab cakes.
The first thing you notice is that the crab cakes look nothing like they do on the box. With the words "jumbo lump" all over the box, you would think there would be larger lumps of crab contained within. While there are some sizable lumps, they end up being nothing that you would consider jumbo. There is also a lot more filler than your would be lead to believe, which is more mayonnaise than bread crumbs, so the cakes turn eggy.
After that, you then notice that the crab cakes have a bit of a fishy smell to them. Definitely not "premium restaurant quality" but more of the blue swimmer crab that originates in Asia and gets used in a lot of cheap seafood. Being the brave souls that we are, we fought past that and tried the crab cakes. Really not much flavor at all. The fishy taste is what you first notice, although it's not as bad as the smell. Overall, it turned out to be a very bland crab cake. One would have expected more Old Bay flavor, given the branding and all. You can add your own Old Bay to spice it up, but it doesn't really help the nasty taste of the crab, the overall bland flavor of the filler, and the eggy texture of the binder.
Given all of the above, our recommendation is to save your cash and stay away from these crab cakes. The name may pull you in, but we'd recommend you not sully any affections you have for the true Old Bay flavor with these licensed crab cake imposters. Others may have come to this conclusion as well, as Crab Source's product page doesn't even list these crab cakes (at least at the time of this writing).
Additional Info
- Restaurant Name: Old Bay Crab Cakes
- Address: Available at retail stores. Distribution may vary.
- Neighborhood: Crofton
- Restaurant Type: Retail
- Website: http://www.crabsource.com/products/Old%C2%A0Bay
- Review Date: 10/08/2012 7:25pm
- Item(s) Ordered: Old Bay Crab Cakes
- Cooking Style: Broiled
- Other Styles Available: No
- Available by mail order?: No
- Price: 7.99
- Order Type: Store Bought
- Crab Content: Jumbo Lump
- Filler: Average
- Spice: Minimal
- Overall Impression: Stay Away
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Rating (out of 5 crabs):
