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A Texan's First Maryland Crabcakes!
Unlike Alexis, I never think to photograph what I cook, but tonight I made my first crabcakes. I’d eaten them before, of course, but I thought it was time I made the effort. It didn’t seem like it’d be so hard. I bought a pound of Maryland backfin crabmeat at a seafood Market down the street. They put the container on ice in a bag, and the guy rings me up and says, “Here you go, hon.” Heh. How Baltimore.
Anyway, I used the recipe located on this site. The only difference is that I did not deep-fry the cakes. Instead, I took Patti LaBelle’s advice and put a bit of butter on each cake and broiled them for four minutes on each side. Perfect! Nice and golden brown. Food Safety Queen, Alexis Brown, broke out the meat thermometer and required me to test the temp of the food before allowing me to remove it from the broiler. The center temp of the cakes needed to be 145 degrees. No problem. They were well over that.
They were mighty tasty. The only problem we had is that I need to learn to clean the meat better. This was my first time picking cartilage out of crabmeat, and I didn’t get it all, so we had to chew and spit, chew and spit. Other than they, they went down smooth.
One lb. of crab makes six cakes, btw, and it cost me about $15. The lump crab (the really primo stuff) would have run about $23. I wasn’t prepared to plop down that kind of cash for an experiment. Maybe next time.
jax
1- I like the texture of crabmeat in crabcakes best when it’s NOT the really expensive lump. The flakyness of the semi-lump meat helps the cake hold together better.
I know you’re in Maryland and blue crab is king, but if you come up here, I’ll make them with Jonah crabs – much sweeter meat, imho.
2-Why such care for a higher internal temp? The crab is already cooked, and the only other thing I can think of that you’d want mostly cooked is the eggs (if used) but really, people eat partially cooked eggs in tons of things – why such concern here?
MJ
And yeah, I didn’t use the lump. I used the backfin. The lump was like $10 more expensive a lb. And I have heard your take on the Maine crab vs. the Maryland crab. Of course, that could get you a beat-down if you start spouting that stuff around here. Be careful! These folks take their crabs rather seriously. It’s kinda like Texans and their barbeque. And their chili. And their iced tea. And, well. . .you get the idea.