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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This recipe was EASY to follow and provided me a GREAT foundation to incorporate on !
Thank you so much for this delicious recipe! My husband bought the packaged fresh crab at Cotsco (Phillips). I was wary, but using it in this recipe was fantastic! We saved a few crabcakes and they were also delicious the next day. Googling for a crab cake recipe lead me to Once Upon a Chef and I have been enjoying many more recipes since.
Keep up the beautiful work!
You cant call this a Maryland Crab cake if you gonna put TARTAR sauce on it. GEEZ.
This recipe is amazing. Thank you so much!
I have tried so many recipes, even my own. This one is excellent. Remember the rest in the fridge, as this is critical.
Made these tonight for dinner and they were excellent! Restaurant quality! Even the tartar sauce was delicious! This is the first recipe that I have made from this site (just discovered it while searching for a crab cake recipe). Based on the results, I look forward to trying many other recipes from this site.
I’ve made these crab cakes before several times and always delicious! I am I interested this time if possible in the oven. What do you think Jen? And how would you do it? Thanks in advance and thank you for all your great recipes.
Glad you like them, Janio! I like them best pan-fried but you can cook them in the oven. I’d suggest 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. I’d love to hear what you think of the baked versus pan-fried versions!
I made these in a hot iron skillet and baked them in a convection over at 400 for 20 min They were delicious crispy on the bottom and fluffy throughout! Did not do the tarter sauce because I prefer Remoulade.
Easy prep and tastes delicious!
I tried this last night & it turned out good. I’ll definitely make them again but need to modify the recipe for 2 picky eaters & based on what I had in the pantry.
I used artificial crab meat chunks (Kroger Chunk Style Imitation Crab Meat $4/lb.) & the taste/texture was fine once you mixed in all the other ingredients. There was no real difference between artificial vs. real meat ($20+/lb.), based on crab cakes I’ve had in nicer restaurants. Plus, no shells…lol.
The Dijon mustard & Worcestershire sauce was the perfect combination of tangy & savory. I didn’t have any Old Bay, so I used cajun seasoning instead. Next time I’ll use 2t. instead of one.
We never eat celery since it always goes to waste, so I left that out. The salt ratio was fine. If I ever buy celery salt, I’ll use that.
I used 2T. dried parsley instead of fresh & it added a beautiful pop of green color & made them look restaurant quality.
I used Panko bread crumbs, but I’ve never been a fan of them in other recipes, so the next time I’ll use regular bread crumbs. They’re just too big & gritty for me. We both have more of a problem with food texture than taste.
The only real problem I ran into was leaving the crab chunks too big. I chopped them up to try & match the size shown in the photo but the cakes were falling apart while frying. Maybe I used too much oil? I only used barely enough to cover the bottom of a large 13″ skillet, but even after letting them sit in the fridge for an hour, the pieces of meat along the edges kept breaking off & a few of them split into big pieces. Next time, I’ll mince the crab much finer as you would find in a salmon patty.
I shaped them using 2 different 1/2 c. measuring cups, which made it really easy. One was shorter & wider, the other was taller & deeper. I scooped the mixture into the short wide measuring cup & used the taller, deeper one to pack it down nice & tight. This made for a really pretty presentation. I got 8 uniform crab cakes using this method.
I formed them & put them all on a plastic cutting board, then covered them with cling wrap & left them in the fridge for an hour to set.
It took 5 minutes on each side to fry in olive oil over medium heat & they turned out a gorgeous golden brown.
I didn’t make the tartar sauce, because we don’t eat it anyway, so I have no idea how that tastes.
This is definitely a 5-star recipe. If you like crab cakes, I would highly recommend giving them a try.
I have a great way to store celery!!
I love celery!!! So when you bring home from store, you cut a slime slice off the stock end. Rinse dry with paper towel wrap it good with foil.. and also, I cut off any brown ends on the tips. You can keep for a month or more!!!
A suggestion for your panko dilemma: add the necessary panko crumbs to a baggie or wax/parchment paper and crush them into bread crumbs. I’ve done that numerous times and it always works well.
Simply superb- followed recipe exactly and they were as expected- delicious!