Crab Cakes

recipe seems to be lacking to me

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I always refrigerate mine for a while before frying them.

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thats it right there.

Gris Gris doesn't miss a thing

Yea don't know about that recipie and I like mine baked.

suggestions: drive by dempseys alot better than yours and prob cheaper

I may not like Tom Fitzmorris' personality but I do like his crab cake recipe. he uses a bechamel to hold it together.

1 stick butter
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup warm milk
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. white pepper
2 green onions, thinly sliced
1 tsp. chopped fresh tarragon (or 1/2 tsp. dried)-I didn't use this and it came out fine
2 lbs. lump crabmeat
1/3 finely-chopped red bell pepper
1/2 cup plain bread crumbs-I used italian seasoned
2 tsp. Creole seasoning
2 oz. clarified butter
remoulade sauce


1. Heat the butter in a heavy saucepan over low heat. Add the salt, white pepper, and flour and make a blond roux. Whisk in the milk until the blend has the texture of runny mashed potatoes. Cool to room temperature. (You have just made a béchamel.)

2. Pick crabmeat of any shells, trying to keep the lumps as whole as possible. Combine it in a large bowl with bell pepper, green onion, and tarragon. Add three-fourths of a cup of the cooled béchamel. Mix everything well with your fingers, being careful not to break the crabmeat.

3. Season the bread crumbs with Creole seasoning, and spread them on a plate. Using an ice cream scoop, scoop up balls of the crabmeat mixture. Gently form them into cakes about three-fourths of an inch thick. Press them gently onto the bread crumbs on each side, and shake off the excess crumbs.

4. Heat the clarified butter in a skillet. Sauté crab cakes until golden brown on the outside and heated all the way through. (The way to test this is to push the tines of a kitchen fork into the center of the cake, then touch the fork to your lips. That will tell you whether the heat has penetrated all the way through.)

5. Serve crab cakes w/ remoulade sauce

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the crab meat stayed in its lump form

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To me, this is the make or break for crabcakes and one of the reasons very few restaurants can pull it off.

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I agree Tim. I only use jumbo lump for crabcakes and I take special care to keep the lumps from breaking up when mixing them with the other ingredients.

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That's exactly what I did. I folded everything together very lightly and I think that is more important than any recipe.

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To me, this is the make or break for crabcakes and one of the reasons very few restaurants can pull it off.

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It's very hard to keep crabmeat in its lump form when picking for shells. Especially when it comes to crabmeat augratin. You can taste/feel the shells much more in cooked augratin compared to crab cakes.

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It's very hard to keep crabmeat in its lump form when picking for shells

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Not if you are only doing a pint and use jumbo lump....but in a restaurant situation I can see where it could be a problem...I'm cooking 6...they are going to cook 60....I'm very careful picking because time is no factor...the restaurant is on the clock....ost of ingr. is no factor to me...a restaurant must make a profit.....Part of the reasons I say without boasting....I can cook a meal as good or better than most restaurants.