Crab cakes are a favorite in the coastal areas, where the marine industry peaks.
They’re like fish cakes but made with crab. Each one is a fresh pop of the sea.
Thus, you can’t miss the distinctive flavor of the crab lump meat or the unique spices added to it.
To make, combine crab with other ingredients like seasonings and breadcrumbs. Then, you shape them like a small patty.
Grilled, baked, fried, broiled – there are many ways to make and serve this dish. You can pair it with various sauces, like tartar, or side dishes, like French fries.
1. Maryland Crab Cakes
There’s no compilation of crab cake recipes without the iconic Maryland crab cakes.
Maryland is one of the states along the Atlantic coast. Thus, the seafood industry, including crab, is prominent in this area.
With the boom of such businesses comes the birth of the Maryland crab cake.
They’re known for their large chunks of meat. You make them with mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, eggs, and other ingredients.
This crab cakes recipe uses lump crab meat (and a bit of filler). You can have tartar sauce (included in this recipe) or cocktail sauce as a side.
2. Old Bay Crab Cakes
Old Bay is a seasoning produced by McCormick. It’s used in a lot of seafood dishes, especially Crab Cakes.
Such is the popularity of Old Bay that the company produced an Old Bay Classic Crab Cake Seasoning Mix. Yes, just especially for these crustacean patties.
But, for this recipe, we’ll use simple Old Bay seasoning.
You also need lump crab meat, white bread, mayonnaise, and green onions. Plus, some parsley, yellow mustard, and egg.
You can either broil or fry these crab cakes. You can sprinkle some more Old Bay on the golden brown patties.
3. Southern Crab Cakes
Meal, appetizer, side dish, or even snack – these Southern crab cakes are versatile as hell. When you take a bite of them – they’re also delicious as hell.
You can use jumbo lump crab meat or claw crab meat. There aren’t a lot of sauces or condiments that go into this crab cake.
Thus, besides the meat, you’ll only need an egg, flour, salt, paprika or Old Bay, and black pepper to form the patties.
To achieve that perfect golden brown crust, fry the crab cakes in a buttered pan. Then serve with some lemons, parsley, and tartar sauce.
4. Chesapeake Bay Crab Cakes
The Chesapeake Bay runs along the length of six states and some portions of Washington.
Along this bay, there is a bounty of crabs, especially blue crabs. Some say these are the best for crab cakes.
Thus, it’s no surprise that there are Chesapeake Bay-style crab cakes, too.
This recipe calls for blue crab or Dungeness crab meat. You’ll use fewer ingredients like mayo, panko bread crumbs, seasoning, egg, and chives.
This crab cake recipe is for pan frying, so you’d need some butter too.
Serve the patties with a plate of vegetables or some lemon wedges on the side.
5. Louisiana Deviled Crab Cakes
If you like hot and spicy crab cakes, prepare for what Louisiana has to offer.
Louisiana deviled crab cakes are spiced with cayenne and dry mustard. Dry mustard is spicier than the usual mustard.
The patties are also instilled with the holy trinity of Cajun flavors: green bell pepper, celery, and onion.
The meat used is jumbo lump crabmeat, which makes the best crab cakes. Other ingredients include sour cream, Worcestershire sauce, scallions, saltine, and salt.
While you can serve this with lemon wedges and tartar sauce, we recommend coleslaw or green salad. It’s to help level out the spice.
6. Charleston Crab Cakes
Nothing beats a family recipe handed down from generation to generation. Family recipes inspire these crab cakes.
Charleston Grill is a famous resto in South Carolina. It’s known for its crab cakes; luckily for us, they shared their recipe.
The seasoning mixture combines mayo, egg white, lemon, chives, thyme, salt, and pepper. You’ll then add the meat to complete the crab mixture, shape, and cook.
The recipe post also comes with a special sauce recipe. You’ll need shrimp, tomatoes, lime, shallots, fresh dill, and olive oil.
The sauce is served warm over the patties, and you’ll have yourself a complete package.
7. New England Crab Cakes
At this point, we’ve been hopping from state to state, trying out their unique crab cakes. But don’t worry, I’ve got one more for you.
Each crab cake recipe has a unique set of ingredients and seasonings. This leads to a unique taste profile.
For this recipe, you’ll need an egg, mayo, green onions, milk, lemon juice, and hot sauce. You must have Worcestershire, Old Bay, and panko bread crumbs, too.
Except for the panko, you combine all those ingredients to make a crab mixture. Then, you coat them with panko, shape them into crab cakes and cook.
8. Air Fryer Crab Cakes
Many of us have hopped on the air fryer trend. Now, we’re running out of recipes to make with it. Here’s one more.
This recipe offers tasty crab cakes but without the oiliness from pan frying. It’s more convenient and less messy.
You also get the same golden brown crust, flakey meat, and juicy crab cake that we all love. What’s better, it takes only 20 minutes from prep to serving.
To start, you make your crab mixture using common ingredients. The recommended setting for cooking crab cakes with an air fryer is 370°F for ten minutes.
9. Baked Crab Cakes
Usually, you fry crab cakes to achieve that crunchy, golden brown exterior. But frying involves a lot of oil, mess, and effort.
But there’s an alternative – baking. Baking these Maryland-style crab cakes leads to an even cook throughout each patty, so the inside’s aren’t underdone.
It’s much less oily and messy too. There’s no mayo in the crab mixture, so you also reduce the fat and highlight the crab flavor better.
To cook, place the patties on a baking sheet and bake for around 15 minutes. Prepare some remoulade or tartar sauce and lemon wedges for serving.
10. Keto Crab Cakes
A ketogenic diet focuses on eating fewer carbs and high amounts of fat.
Each crab patty in this keto recipe is worth only one carb or less. To achieve that, the author made substitutions for the usual ingredients.
For instance, instead of panko bread crumbs, you’ll use pork rind panko. But don’t worry, there’s no pork taste in your crab cakes.
There’s also the crab meat (of course), mayo egg, green onions, lime, and Old Bay.
You can serve the crab cakes with a Chipotle Mayo sauce (included in the recipe) that you can make on your own.
11. Grilled Crab Cakes
So we’ve had pan-fried, air-fried, and baked crab cakes. Let’s try out some grilled crab cakes to round up the list.
This recipe is also Maryland-style but uses buttery crackers instead of breadcrumbs. There’s also mayo, spicy and dry mustard, Worcestershire, Old Bay, black pepper, and egg.
You’ll use a skillet placed over indirect heat from scorching charcoal. This will induce a broiler effect, which will grill the crab cakes.
Both sides of the crab cakes must be golden brown for you to consider them done. It’ll take around ten minutes for one side to cook but rely more on what you see.
12. Canned Crab Meat Crab Cakes
Most of our recipes above have fresh lump crab meat.
While fresh is always best, sometimes we don’t have access to fresh crab meat. Or you have a lot of canned crab meat stocked at home.
Thus, this recipe is for people like you. These crab cakes are still delicious and much easier to make since you only have to open cans.
You’ll need some bread crumbs and an egg. The spices are green onions, sweet red peppers, egg, mayo, lemon juice, garlic, and cayenne.
You’ll get the same juicy crab cakes if you cook them right.
12 Delicious Crab Cake Recipes
Make yourself the best crab cakes using these recipes!
Ingredients
Maryland Crab Cakes
Old Bay Crab Cakes
Southern Crab Cakes
Chesapeake Bay Crab Cakes
Louisiana Deviled Crab Cakes
Charleston Crab Cakes
New England Crab Cakes
Air Fryer Crab Cakes
Baked Crab Cakes
Keto Crab Cakes
Grilled Crab Cakes
Canned Crab Meat Crab Cakes
Directions
- Select your favorite recipe.
- Organize all the required ingredients.
- Prep a crab cake in 30 minutes or less!