Easy Southern Style Blue Crab Cakes are a simple, delicious combination of fresh Blue Crab lump crabmeat, and just enough mayonnaise, egg, and cracker crumbs to bind it together.
Unlike many crab cake recipes, Easy Southern Style Blue Crab Cakes doesn’t include red bell pepper, scallions or any other ingredients that might take away from the delicious lusciousness of the fresh crabmeat. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love all types of crab cakes, but for pure simplicity and taste, this easy recipe for scrumptious Southern Style Blue Crab Cakes highlights the delicious lusciousness of fresh crabmeat.
The largest population of blue crabs is found in the Chesapeake Bay, but they are also plentiful in bays and bayous all along the Gulf Coast. They are relatively easy, and fun to catch with a dip net or crab trap and crab boils are common along the coast during the summer months. Unfortunately, they are not so easy to clean, and each crab only yields a small amount of crabmeat. Because cleaning crabs is so labor intensive, fresh lump crabmeat is expensive, but it goes a long way, and a pound of crabmeat will yield 8 large crab cakes or 24 appetizer-size cakes.
I recently prepared a yummy cold Green Goddess Soup with Lump Crabmeat for a meeting of a cookbook club that I am in and had quite a bit of crabmeat left over. All of the dishes at our luncheon were from Julia Reed’s South, and all were excellent. And yes, if you are wondering, I plan to post an adaption of that recipe soon, but today it’s all about how I used the delicious leftover lump blue crabmeat and how it comes together for these scrumptious crab cakes.
If you like crab, you might also like this recipe: Avocado Stuffed with Blue Crab. You also might want to check out these popular seafood recipes: Fish Tacos with Mango Slaw, Brown Sugar Glazed Bacon Wrapped Shrimp, and Easy Baked Parmesan Grouper Fillets.
The ingredients for these simple Easy Southern Style Blue Crab Cakes include fresh Blue Crab lump crabmeat, mayonnaise, egg, saltine crackers, Dijon mustard, hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce and olive oil. That’s it!
How to make Easy Southern Style Blue Crab Crab Cakes
Gather your ingredients. Gently pick through the crab meat to remove any remaining small pieces of shell.
In a medium size, bowl toss the crab meat with the crushed saltine crackers and gently mix. Set aside.
In a small bowl, mix the mayonnaise, egg, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and hot sauce until smooth.
Add the mayonnaise mixture to the crab mixture and gently toss the ingredients together.
To make it easier to form the crab cakes, cover the crab mixture and place in the refrigerator for 30-45 minutes.
To make the large crab cakes, roughly divide the mixture and then, using your hands, lightly shape the mixture into ½ inch cakes about 3-4 inches wide, just until it holds together. Do not pack the mixture tightly.
Add the olive oil to a large skillet over medium-high heat and when the oil is hot add four of the crab cakes. Cook for about 3 minutes per side and remove from the pan when they are golden brown on each side. Drain on a paper towel. Repeat with the remaining four crab cakes.
Serve immediately.
Looking for other popular recipes from the South? Check out these delicious favorites: Southern Potato Salad, Southern Pecan Praline Cake, Southern Pimento Cheese Spread, and Easy Classic Southern Tomato Pie. Intrigued? Check out, even more, Southern Recipes.
| Prep Time | 10 minutes |
| Cook Time | 12 minutes |
| Servings | large or 24 appetizer size crab cakes |
- 1 lb fresh lump Blue Crab crabmeat
- 20 saltine crackers finely crushed
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1 large egg beaten
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1/4 tsp hot sauce
- 1/4 cup olive oil
Ingredients
|
- Gently pick through the crab to remove any remaining small pieces of shell.
- In a medium size, bowl, toss the crab meat with the crushed saltine crackers and gently mix together. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, mix the mayonnaise, egg, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and hot sauce until smooth.
- Add the mayonnaise mixture to the crab mixture and gently toss the ingredients together.
- To make it easier to form the crab cakes, cover the crab mixture and place in the refrigerator for 30-45 minutes.
- To make the large crab cakes, roughly divide the mixture and then, using your hands, lightly shape it into 1/2 inch cakes about 3-4 inches wide, just until it holds together. Do not pack the mixture tightly.
- Add the olive oil to a large skillet over medium-high heat and when the oil is hot add four of the crab cakes. Cook for about 3 minutes per side and remove from the pan when they are golden brown on each side. Drain on a paper towel. Repeat with the remaining four crab cakes.
- Serve immediately.
If you are making the smaller appetizer-size crab cakes, make them about the size of a silver dollar and between 1/4 and 1/3 inch thick. Since these cakes are smaller, the cooking time will be about half of the large size crab cakes.
Leftover crab cakes should be covered and refrigerated. To reheat crab cakes, remove them from the refrigerator and let them come to room temperature. Add about a tablespoon of olive oil to a pan over medium-high heat and cook for 2 minutes per side. Leftover crab cakes can also be frozen. They will need to thaw them before reheating.
I love that you kept this recipe simple to let the crab shine through! When you’re using great seafood you really don’t need a lot of bells and whistles.
Thanks, Megan! I totally agree!
I am a sucker for a good crab cake and these look delicious!
Thanks so much Christine!