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Pan-Fried Crab Cakes served ready to eat.

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Pan-Fried Crab Cakes

Yield
6 servings

Sweet crabmeat held together with just a little bread, egg and mayonnaise, seasoned with mustard and seafood seasoning, then browned in butter. A gentle hand keeps the crab in big, tender pieces.

Ingredients
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Ingredients

Servings
Units
Batches and reset

6 servings · US measures · 1 batch

Batching

Mix and fry one base batch of 6 patties at a time in the 12-inch skillet. For 12, make a second batch; frying time and the 160°F endpoint do not change with quantity.

Original recipe: 6 servings.

Nutrition is incomplete. The seafood seasoning and the Dijon-style mustard have no matching food record in the retained data, and the share of frying butter the cakes absorb is not established, so none of these is counted. Salt added to taste is not included either.

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Before you start

  • Read through the recipe before mixing. Gather the bowl, plate, skillet, turner, thermometer and measured ingredients, and pick through the crab for shell.

Directions

White crabmeat, crustless bread and beaten egg sit beside an empty mixing bowl and spatula.
1

Read and gather

For the whole recipe

Read through the recipe, gather the equipment, and use the ingredient lines to prepare everything, feeling through the crabmeat with your fingertips for bits of shell. Everything is measured and within reach.

Large crab lumps remain intact in a seasoned binder inside a glass mixing bowl.
2

Tear the bread and mix

For each batch of 6

Tear the bread into small crumbs in the mixing bowl. Add the egg, seafood seasoning, mayonnaise, mustard and Worcestershire sauce and stir until smooth, then fold in the crabmeat with the spatula until just combined, keeping the crab in large pieces.

Six pale uncooked crab patties rest separately on a parchment-lined white plate.
3

Shape the patties and chill

For each batch of 6

Shape the mixture into 6 patties on the lined plate, pressing just enough to hold their shape, and chill them in the refrigerator until they feel firm.

Golden crab cakes fry in foaming butter while a thermometer probes one patty.
4

Melt the butter and fry

For each batch of 6

Melt the butter in the 12-inch skillet over medium heat until it foams. Fry the patties, turning once with the wide turner, until both sides are deep golden and the center of the thickest one reads 160°F (71°C) on an instant-read thermometer, about 8 minutes.

A broken golden crab cake reveals white lumps beside a tasting fork and salt.
5

Taste and adjust

For each batch of 6

Taste a corner of the first cooked crab cake. Aim for sweet crab with bright mustard and a gentle seafood-seasoning warmth. If it tastes flat, sprinkle salt to taste over the crab cakes.

Six white plates each hold one golden crab cake, with a turner under the nearest.
6

Serve

For the whole recipe

Serve the crab cakes hot as 6 servings, one crab cake each. Refrigerate leftovers within two hours and reheat them in the oven until the center reaches 165°F (74°C).

About this recipe

Research preview: these details come from our sourced research and haven't been reviewed by our chef yet.

Why it works

A small amount of bread, egg and mayonnaise binds the crab without hiding it, and folding gently keeps the lumps whole. Pressing the patties only enough to hold, then browning them in butter, gives a crisp outside and a tender middle.

Associated with

Maryland and Chesapeake Bay, US Mid-Atlantic

The name "crab cake" appears in an 1891 cookbook, and "Baltimore crab cakes" in a 1939 World's Fair cookbook. Blue crab from the Chesapeake Bay is the traditional choice.

Taste

  • Sweet
  • Sour
  • Salty
  • Bitter
  • Savory
  • Heat

Sweet crab with savory seafood seasoning and a little mustard tang. · tender lumps of crab held loosely, crisp, browned outside · hot

Skill level

Some practice

Few steps, but keeping the crab in lumps while the cakes still hold together takes a light hand.

You'll practice: Pick crab for shell, Fold gently to keep lumps whole, Shape loose patties, Pan-fry in butter, Check the center with a thermometer

Allergens

Contains: crustacean shellfish (crab), egg, wheat, milk.

Check the Worcestershire sauce for fish, the bread for soy and milk, and the mustard for sulfites. Mustard and celery in the seasoning are not US major allergens, so US labels may not warn about them.

Diets

Vegetarian: Doesn't fit as written Vegan: Doesn't fit as written Pescatarian: Fits as listed Dairy: See the allergen lines Egg: See the allergen lines Gluten: See the allergen lines

Occasions

  • Lenten Fridays · Fits as written: shellfish is permitted

    Shellfish is not meat for Catholic abstinence.

    Ash Wednesday (46 days before Western Easter), Good Friday and the other Fridays of Lent

  • Summer crab season · Editorial fit

    Chesapeake blue crab is at its peak in the warm months.

Course: main-dish, appetizer · Technique: pan-fry · Time: 30-to-60-minutes, make-ahead

Serving and keeping

Best served: Straight from the pan With lemon wedges or tartar sauce

Make ahead: Chilling the shaped patties helps them hold together in the pan.

Storage: Refrigerate cooked crab cakes within 2 hours (1 hour above 90 °F / 32 °C), covered.

Leftovers: Reheat in the oven rather than the microwave to keep the outside crisp.

Food safety

  • The mixture contains raw egg: do not taste it raw, and cook each cake until the center reads 160 °F (71 °C).
  • Pick through the crabmeat for bits of shell before mixing.
  • Keep the crabmeat and shaped patties refrigerated until they go into the pan.

We make no statement about cross-contact in your kitchen or in packaged ingredients. Check the Worcestershire sauce, seasoning, bread and mustard labels.

Nutrition notes

Crab supplies most of the protein.

Seafood seasoning, Worcestershire sauce and the crab carry most of the sodium; a salt-free seafood seasoning lowers it.

We don't show nutrition claims (like “good source of”) until our legal review is done.

Swap notes

  • cooked lump crabmeat · kosher.mainstream

    Works with changes

    Use: Flaked cooked cod or haddock

    What changes: This makes fish cakes, a different dish.; Fish is an allergen too.

    Not a swap: Imitation crab, which is fish with wheat and egg.

  • seafood seasoning

    Works with changes

    Use: A salt-free seafood seasoning blend

    What changes: Taste and add salt only if needed.

    Not a swap: —

These notes don't change the amounts, allergens or nutrition shown for this recipe.

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Recipe url
https://isthebestrecipe.com/seafood/pan-fried-crab-cakes
Name
Pan-Fried Crab Cakes
Servings
6
Recipe yield
6 servings
Recipe ingredient
2 slices white bread crusts trimmed, 1 whole large egg beaten, 1 tbsp seafood seasoning, 1 tbsp mayonnaise, 1 tsp Dijon-style prepared mustard, 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce, about 1 lb cooked lump crabmeat picked over for shell, 2 tbsp butter for frying, to taste salt
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Pan-Fried Crab Cakes