You can make restaurant-style crab cakes in your own home with my World Famous Crab Cakes Recipe. Not only will you amaze your friends with this delicious and easy recipe, but you’ll also be able to bring the taste of the Eastern Shore to your table whenever you like.
Wouldn’t you love to sit down to a few of these OMG delicious homemade crab cakes?
What Ingredients do I need to make Crab Cakes?
Let’s start by gathering the ingredients we need to make the crab cakes. In Chef Speak this is called the Mise en Place which translates into Everything in its Place.
Not only does setting your ingredients up ahead of time speed the cooking process, but it also helps ensure you have everything you need to make the dish.
How to Make Restaurant Style Jumbo Lump Crab Cakes
- Mix all the ingredients for the crab cakes together, being careful not to break up the lumps of crab meat.
- Mix the ingredients for the imperial sauce together in another bowl
Some crab cake recipes call for a little dijon mustard in the imperial sauce. I sometimes add a teaspoon of good dijon mustard to the mixture.
- Add the imperial sauce into the crab meat mixture.
If you love crab meat, try my Crab Imperial Recipe next.
- Gently mix the ingredients together, being careful not to break up the big lumps too much.
Refrigerate the mixture for 30 minutes to give the bread crumbs time to absorb the liquids.
- Shape the crab cake mixture into portions (feel free to make them as big or small as you like)
- Dust the crab cakes with a light coating of breadcrumbs. You can use seasoned breadcrumbs, unseasoned bread crumbs, panko bread crumbs, or cracker crumbs for this crab cake recipe.
*You can even skip the breadcrumbs if you’re cutting back on carbs and simply broil the crab cakes.
- Add the crabcakes to hot pan with a little cooking oil to saute the crab cakes.
- Gently turn over the crab cakes and saute the other side.
- Place the finished crab cakes on a baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 20 -25 minutes or until an internal temperature of at least 165 degrees is reached.
If they do break apart you can squeeze them back together gently to reform the crab cake. This recipe can be used for crab cake sliders!
Using a digital instant-read thermometer will help you cook the perfect crab cakes and be a great help in your kitchen.
Do I have to put onions and peppers in my crab cakes?
No, you don’t. True Maryland-style crab cakes would not contain either. I like added flavor that the onions give, but in all honesty, the peppers and fresh parsley are just for color.
What type of crab meat can I use to make crab cakes?
Over the years I have made more crabcakes than I care to remember, I’ve used claw, special, lump, jumbo lump and a mixture of two or more types of crab meat. It all depends on what I could charge for the crab cakes and what was available in the markets.
At home my crab cake of choice is usually made with claw meat, it’s got a lot of flavor and is the least expensive type of crab meat to buy. The only problem with claw or any crabmeat for that matter is finding a wild-caught product from U.S. waters or the gulf down to South America. If you buy crabmeat from other any waters, let the buyer beware!!
The source of the crab meat can be from any part of the world that has crabs and includes varieties such as Blue Swimming, Dungeness, Snow, King and of course my favorite Blue Claw.
- Jumbo lump
- Lump
- Backfin
- Claw
- Imitation crab meat
How do I make Old Bay Seasoning?
If you can’t find Old Bay at your markets it’s easy enough to make at home.
- 1 tablespoon celery salt
- 2 teaspoons ground bay leaves
- 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
- 1 ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- ¼ teaspoon allspice
- 1 teaspoon dry mustard
- 1 pinch nutmeg
- 1 pinch cinnamon
- 1 pinch ginger
If you’d rather not make the seasoning, you can always use the recipe as a guideline and use seasonings that you enjoy eating with seafood.
Do I have to fry crab cakes?
No, you don’t. They bake up nicely with or without the final bread crumb coating and will cook nicely in an Air-Fryer.
Then it’s just a matter of serving them up with your favorite side dish and enjoying a restaurant-style dinner that would have cost you a lot more if you had gone to eat. Serve with lemon wedges, tartar sauce or hot sauce and enjoy the Best Crab Cakes you’ll ever make at home!
Try my quick tarter sauce recipe!
You can whip together a delicious homemade tartar sauce in a matter of minutes. Simply blend 1 cup mayonnaise, 1 tablespoon sweet pickle relish, 1 teaspoon prepared yellow mustard and 1 teaspoon lemon juice. If you’re feeling fancy add 1 teaspoon of chopped capers and any of your favorite herbs. With these additions, you’ve made a basic remoulade.
Recipe FAQ’s
You can either bake or fry these crab cakes. My personal preference is to saute them because I can cook them long enough to get a good color and freeze them for later dinners when I don’t feel like cooking. But if you’re trying to save calories baking them is a good option.
refrigerating the crabcakes before cooking is the secret to keep the crab cakes from falling apart while they’re cooking. Make sure to cover the uncooked crab cakes with plastic wrap and chill them for one to three hours before cooking.
Too much filler will result in mush crab cakes. You should only use just enough bread crumbs to help hold the crab cakes together.
Crab cake filler is generally bread crumbs, but can also be made with saltine cracker crumbs, and unsalted cracker crumbs.
More Crabmeat Recipes You’ll Love!
Jumbo Lump Crab Cakes
Ingredients
Imperial Sauce
- ½ cup Hellmann's mayonnaise
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning
- 1 dash Worcestershire sauce
- 1 squeeze fresh lemon juice
Crab cakes
- 1 lb crab meat jumbo lump, lump or claw, wild caught
- 1 tablespoon onions finely chopped (optional)
- 1 tablespoon roasted red peppers or fresh red peppers finely chopped finely chopped (optional)
- 1 tablespoon Italian parsley finely chopped
- ¼ cup seasoned bread crumbs or plain bread crumbs
Instructions
Imperial Sauce
- In small bowl add the mayonnaise, and egg and mix together well. Then add the sugar, Old Bay, Worcestershire and lemon juice, mix well.
Crab cakes
- Mix crab meat, chopped parsley, onion, and peppers together. Gently mix them do not break up lump crab meat.
- Add the imperial sauce to the crab meat and mix together gently, add the bread crumbs and work them into the mixture.
- Allow this mixture to sit for about 10 minutes, the bread crumbs will soak up any extra liquid so you can easily form the crab cakes
- Divide the crab meat mixture into 8 small or 4 large crabcake
- If you are frying the crab cakes, lightly coat the crab cake in panko bread crumbs, and sauté in olive oil until golden brown on both sides. Place in a baking dish and bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.If you'd prefer you can also bake them in a 350-degree oven for about 20 minutes. With or without the panko bread crumb exterior.
Hope
I just have to say I love that you put different variations and ways to make. Every question that I had such as can I do with out peppers and old bay was answered. I have to be careful of what foods I intake due to sensitive stomach issues and this article was just perfect. Even though I love those ingredients my belly doesn’t. Can’t wait to try! Well done!
Jamie
The imperial sauce is so delicious with all the flavorings and spices! It goes perfectly with the crab cakes which are a favorite of ours!
Debbie
I love crab cakes and never really knew how to make them until now. That imperial sauce sounds like a perfect compliment and will make these restaurant quality.
Erin
Thanks for including a recipe for Old Bay! I live in Germany now and have been missing that. And these crab cakes came out looking amazing! It’s time I give them a try.
Amy Liu Dong
Hands up to this recipe. It’s delicious and looks so easy to prepare. Perfect dish for this weekend. Yum!
Aleta
We catch a lot of crab over the summer, well, as soon as the ocean isn’t too treacherous for my husband and our row boat lol… Usually we just crack the crab and dunk it in butter, but these look so incredibly delicious, I’m going to make my family some with the first catch of the year!