Crab cakes are a way of life in Maryland. Over the years, DC and Delaware have joined in on the crab love. Many people shy away from making crab cakes, but I’m here to tell you that it’s super easy and delicious to make right at home.

First we should talk about a few logistics…

How to buy Crab Meat

For these crab cakes you want to make sure you get 1 lb total. I used 8 oz of jumbo lump and 8 oz of lump crab meat. The reason for this is because you want to see the crab chunks but you also want it to stick together without much filler. The lump crab is smaller than the jumbo lump and fits nicely into the gaps of the crab cake keeping them super crabby.

Cleaning Crab Meat

When you’re cleaning crab meat, there are a couple things you want to look out for.

First, you want it to smell like fresh crab and ocean water to know that it’s still good.

Second, you want to make sure that all the shells are picked out of the meat – some of the shell may be crushed during the packaging process and stuck on the meat so it’s important to pick through your meat quickly. Be careful to not break the large meat lumps, shells will not be inside the meat, just on the outside.

Crushing your Saltines

I use a plastic bag and rolling pin. Gently tap the crackers until they are finely crushed. Saltines are my favorite choice for this recipe because the saltiness of the crackers help flavor the crab.

Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s get to the recipe!