Maryland Crab Cakes with Quick Tartar Sauce
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A Maryland staple, these crab cakes are made from fresh lump crab meat and just enough filler to bind the crabmeat together.
Photo by Alexandra Grablewski (Chronicle Books, 2018)
When you live in Maryland, eating Chesapeake blue crabs and crab cakes is practically a religion—and, in my family, we are all loyal devotees. Every summer, we hit all of our favorite crab shacks, from local joints all the way to the Eastern shore, where you can look out over the bay and put your feet in the sand.
I’d never attempt making steamed blue crabs at home. Live crabs, giant steamers—yikes! But I do often make crab cakes, which are just as delicious and easier to prepare (not to mention eat). The key is using fresh lump crabmeat and just enough filler to bind the crabmeat together. I love them with tartar sauce, but you could also serve them with lemon wedges or cocktail sauce. Don’t forget the peel-and-eat shrimp, hush puppies, and cornbread.
Table of Contents
What You’ll Need To Make Maryland Crab Cakes
It’s very important to use fresh, good-quality lump crab meat. Look for fresh-off-the-boat crab meat, which is sold in a clear plastic container, usually resting on ice in the seafood department. It’s expensive, but one pound is enough to make six generous crab cakes (or 12 mini ones).
If fresh lump crab meat is not available, the second-best option is refrigerated crab meat, such as Phillip’s, which is readily available year-round. Avoid shelf-stable canned crab meat, which contains additives that affect the taste and texture of the meat. (For a less expensive alternative to crab cakes, or when fresh crab meat is not in season, try fresh salmon cakes.)
Note that celery is not traditional in Maryland crab cakes, but I love the little crunch it adds; feel free to leave it out if you’re a purist.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Make the Crab Cakes
To begin, combine the eggs, mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, Worcestershire, Old Bay, salt, celery, and parsley in a bowl.
Mix well to combine.
Add the crab meat (be sure to check the meat for any hard and sharp cartilage) and panko.
Gently fold the mixture together until just combined, being careful not to shred the crab meat.
Shape into 6 large crab cakes (about ½ cup each) and place on a baking sheet. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. This is really important to help the crab cakes set.
Preheat a large nonstick pan to medium heat and coat with oil. When the oil is hot, place crab cakes in the pan and cook until golden brown, about 3 to 5 minutes.
Flip and cook 3 to 5 minutes more, or until golden. Be careful as the oil may splatter.
Make the Tartar Sauce
Combine the mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, sweet pickle relish, red onion, lemon, salt, and pepper in a small bowl.
Whisk well, then cover and chill until ready to serve.
Video Tutorital
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Maryland Crab Cakes with Quick Tartar Sauce
A Maryland staple, these crab cakes are made from fresh lump crab meat and just enough filler to bind the crabmeat together.
Ingredients
For the Crab Cakes
- 2 large eggs
- 2½ tablespoons mayonnaise, best quality such as Hellmann's or Duke's
- 1½ teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup finely diced celery, from one stalk
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley
- 1 pound lump crab meat (see note below)
- ½ cup panko
- Vegetable or canola oil, for cooking
For the Quick Tartar Sauce
- 1 cup mayonnaise, best quality such as Hellmann's or Duke's
- 1½ tablespoons sweet pickle relish
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoon minced red onion
- 1-2 tablespoons lemon juice, to taste
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
For the Crab Cakes
- Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil for easy clean-up.
- Combine the eggs, mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, Worcestershire, Old Bay, salt, celery, and parsley in a large bowl and mix well. Add the crab meat (be sure to check the meat for any hard and sharp cartilage) and panko; using a rubber spatula, gently fold the mixture together until just combined, being careful not to shred the crab meat. Shape into 6 cakes (each about ½ cup) and place on the prepared baking sheet. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. This helps them set.
- Preheat a large nonstick pan over medium heat and coat with oil. When the oil is hot, place the crab cakes in the pan and cook until golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes per side. Be careful as oil may splatter. Serve the crab cakes warm with the tartar sauce.
For the Quick Tartar Sauce
- In a small bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, relish, mustard, onion, and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Cover and chill until ready to serve.
- Make-Ahead Instructions: The crab cakes can be formed, covered, and refrigerated a day ahead of time before cooking. The tartar sauce can be made and refrigerated up to 2 days in advance.
- Note: If you can only find jumbo lump crab meat, you may need to break the pieces up a bit. If the clumps are too large, the crab cakes won't hold together well.
- Note: The nutritional information does not include the tartar sauce.
Pair with
Nutrition Information
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- Serving size: 2 crab cakes
- Calories: 299
- Fat: 14 g
- Saturated fat: 3 g
- Carbohydrates: 9 g
- Sugar: 1 g
- Fiber: 1 g
- Protein: 32 g
- Sodium: 1141 mg
- Cholesterol: 275 mg
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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These crab cakes were restaurant quality. We do crab legs for New Years. Made these with our left over crab and they were so good!!! The sauce is unique.
Love these crab cakes. Not a bunch of filler. You taste the crab and everything else just brings out more flavor. We halve the recipe for the two of us. Makes four crab cakes at 1/2 cup each. We serve it over the Caesar salad on this website. The only change we made was to leave out the Panko until the end. Then measure out a half cup of the mixture in round measuring cup, put it in plastic to help form a cake and then carefully place it on a plate of Panko and make the crust around it. Use your hands to keep it in the right shape. A little slippery but it’s doable. Thanks Jenn.
This is my go-to recipe for New Year’s Eve. My husband is a crab cake junkie and absolutely loves these. The only change I make is that I omit celery and make half of the tarter sauce. It’s an outstanding recipe. Thank you so much for sharing it with us!
Maryland born and bred. Very similar recipie to my families 4th generation. The key, and I can’t stress this enough, to this or any crab cake recipe is the crab meat. Fresh MD lump or backfin which can be very difficult to obtain the further you get from the Chesapeake and off season even if your local. Most Maryland restaurants (95%) don’t serve Maryland crabmeat anymore due to the cost and to a lesser extent the supply.
Many of the issues that people have commented negatively I would be willing to bet are related to using imported or previously frozen or canned crab meat. All of which is inferior to the fresh MD product which has a sweet crab flavor that’s a must for crab cakes. Most restaurants over season their cakes to hide the inferior quality crabmeat. Butter, Salt, Old Bay, Worcester Sauce, and Mustard in elevated amounts to make up for the deficiency of the product. Fools a lot of people who are willing to shell out big bucks for a crab cake that is no comparison to the authentic product. Yeah, call me a crab snob but I grew up catching, cooking, and eating the real thing. Not gonna change it after almost seventy years.
I served these crab cakes last night (Christmas Eve) and they are truly are the best…moist, flavourful, and festive. I used best quality frozen crab meat and was very pleased with the result. This will become a new favourite.
I made these for a quiet New Year’s Eve dinner with my husband. The smell of these cooking caught his attention but when he saw the sauce, his comment was that he might prefer cocktail over tartar sauce. Well, he raved about the crab cakes, including the sauce, and definitely wants them in heavy meal rotation! The only slight modification I made was to cut back on the sweet relish and add some finely minced garlic. Delish!!
We lived in Northern Virginia (DC) for six years and Virginia Beach for two, and these fit our memories of awesome crab cakes. (I could never beat the atmosphere at Chick’s Oyster Bar in VB, but these have the taste.) I followed the recipe exactly…except the celery, because we are purists :). The price of crab has gone sky high since the pandemic, but these were worth every penny for good lump crab meat. We’ve never found a restaurant that made crab cakes that fit our expectations, but these do. Thanks! Love this recipe! Another keeper!
Include jalapeño and serve with corn salsa.
Hi Jenn, I see you must have spent some time in Maryland since you are about the only one outside of there to get the recipe almost right. 🙂 Just a note from someone from there and spent many days for lunch at G&M’s that has about the best crab cake in Maryland. Add a little of the dry mustard along with the wet and we would only put in 1 extra large egg and not two large eggs. If you have to add breadcrumbs, please reduce by half or use one slice of bread with a little milk. G&M’s would use special and lump meat for the inside of the cake and coat the outside with back fin lump and then broil them after 30 minutes in the frig. I don’t know of anybody in Maryland that would add celery to the crab cakes. We want the flavor of the crab to shine. You now have pretty much the original recipe from Maryland. We would use the other parts of the crab for soup or stews or pasta dishes and I would be very happy for that in the winter months. enjoy and I like what you did. the recipe was actually a 4.5 star but, I had to stop at 4.
Say it again, You have to from MD. I have never put celery in my crab cakes either
Fantastic recipe that was enjoyed by the entire family! I cooked them in an air fryer and would highly recommend. 8 minutes per side at 375 degrees.
Wondering if this will work with imitation crab since I’m allergic to shellfish
Hi Riah, Yes it will work, although the taste will be different.
Has anyone tried baking these in the oven, instead of frying them?
No amounts given for ingredients
Hi Mary, It sounds like you are just looking at the portion of the page that has the pictures with some instructions underneath. If you scroll down a bit to under the pictures, you’ll find the full recipe. Alternatively, at the very top of the page, to the right of the recipe name, you’ll see an orange/red button that says Jump to Recipe – if you click on that, it will take you directly to the recipe. Hope that clarifies!
Ditto! I would love to save a dish washing 😁 Any oven baking advice would be great!
Hi Shawna, I like the crab cakes best pan-fried but you can cook them in the oven. I’d suggest you use a combination of baking and broiling; bake them in a 350-degree oven on a lightly greased baking sheet for about twenty minutes, or until hot (and it’s not necessary to flip them). Then I’d slide them under the broiler for about a minute to get them golden brown on top. Enjoy!
I just made these crab cakes. I followed the recipe exactly. I spent $50 on fresh frozen crab and shelled it.
It was so salty that I may have to throw them away. If I ever can afford to make them again, I will either eliminate the Old Bay Spice or reduce by half. I found them inedible. So disappointed!!
Really tasty and so easy to make! A real crowd pleaser! Everyone always raves about them when I make them.
I have even made these with good quality raw prawns, as I couldn’t find crabmeat. Both are delicious! I am thinking of combing crab and prawns another time to get the best of both!
Thank you for such a wonderful recipe!