Grandma’s Maryland Style Lump Crab Cakes Recipe

My grandma was amazing and emblazoned Maryland cooking day in and day out. My grandmother passed on several amazing recipes to my mom when she and my dad married. This is one of those recipes.

Appetizers: Hot

Maryland Style Lump Crab Cakes

• July 16, 2016
• Serves 4-24 4-24

Print Recipe

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons Mayonnaise 3 tablespoon Mayonnaise
• 1 Egg 1 Egg
• 1 1/2 teaspoon Dry Mustard 1 1/2 teaspoon Dry Mustard
• 1 teaspoon Old Bay Seafood Seasoning 1 teaspoon Old Bay Seafood Seasoning
• 1/4-1 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper (to taste) 1/4-1 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
• 1 tablespoon Fresh Parsley (chopped) 1 tablespoon Fresh Parsley
• 1lb Lump Blue Crab* (drained) 1 lb Lump Blue Crab*
• 2 Slices White Bread (crust removed, broken up) 2 Slices White Bread
• 1 cup Plain Breadcrumbs 1 cup Plain Breadcrumbs
• 1/4-1/2 cup Oil (Vegetable or Olive Oil for frying) 1/4-1/2 cup Oil
• Salt & Pepper (to taste (I usually don't find the need for salt or pepper)) Salt & Pepper

Directions

Step 1

If bread is used, cut off the crusts and break into small pieces. If crackers are used, crumble them by hand.

Step 2

Thoroughly mix the bread, mustard, mayonnaise, parsley, red pepper, and egg in a bowl. Add the Old Bay seasoning if the crabmeat is not home steamed or is canned. Gently fold in the crabmeat and form into patties. Coat each crab cake with breadcrumbs.

Step 3

Place the coated crab cakes on wax paper. Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour before cooking. This step is important! If you don't refrigerate, the breadcrumbs will come off when you fry the crab cakes and cause little burned bits if you do multiple batches of frying. Also, the crab cakes will not stick together as well and will fall apart when frying.

Step 4

Fry in light olive oil until golden brown on both sides.

This is a traditional Maryland Style crab cake.  What’s the difference between ‘Maryland Crab Cake’ and ‘Maryland Style Crab Cake’? Nothing except where the crab comes from.  Most of the canned crab on the market does NOT come from Maryland, but instead come from the Philippines, Thailand or other waters outside of the Chesapeake Bay. So, since I’m not sure where you are getting your crab, this is a ‘Maryland Style’ crab cake.

I’ve given some notes as well on how to make a lower fat version of this recipe.  But, if you want to impress, use the full fat version and your family and friends will be in pure blue crab heaven.

You can make 6-8 large crab cakes, 12-16 small crab cakes or 24-30 crab balls with one pound of crab cakes.  The recipe is the same, except you may need more bread crumbs to cover the crab balls.

Enjoy!