Maryland Crab Cake Recipe
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If you’re looking for an authentic Maryland crab cake recipe, this is the one to make. Packed with sweet lump crab meat and just enough filler to let the crab shine, these crab cakes are crisp and golden on the outside, tender inside, and full of classic Maryland flavor.
Photo by Alexandra Grablewski (Chronicle Books, 2018)
When you live in Maryland, eating Chesapeake blue crabs and crab cakes is practically a religion—and, in my family, we are all loyal devotees. Every summer, we hit all of our favorite crab shacks, from local joints all the way to the Eastern shore, where you can look out over the bay and put your feet in the sand. While steamed blue crabs are always a treat, these Maryland crab cakes are every bit as delicious and much easier to prepare.
This is the crab cake recipe I make most often at home. I keep the filler to a minimum—there’s just enough binder to hold the cakes together, so the fresh crab meat is what you actually taste.
I love these crab cakes with homemade tartar sauce, but you can also serve them with lemon wedges or even cocktail sauce. Don’t forget the peel-and-eat shrimp, hush puppies, coleslaw, and cornbread on the side.
“This is the best crab cake recipe I’ve ever tried! Absolutely delicious and loaded with all crab, hardly any fillers.”
What You’ll Need To Make Maryland Crab Cakes
- Eggs: Help bind the crab cakes so they hold together when cooked.
- Mayonnaise: Adds moisture and richness to the crab cakes. Use a good-quality brand like Hellmann’s or Duke’s for the best flavor.
- Flavorings: These classic Maryland seasonings enhance the sweet crab without overpowering it.
- Celery (optional): Adds a bit of crunch to the crab mixture—nontraditional but a nice touch. Skip it if you’re a purist.
- Fresh Lump Crab Meat: Look for it fresh in the seafood department, not canned—see “Buying Crabmeat” below for what to look for.
- Panko breadcrumbs: Just enough to help bind the mixture while keeping the crab cakes light. Unlike traditional breadcrumbs, panko creates a delicate texture without weighing the crab cakes down.
- Vegetable oil: For pan-frying the crab cakes until crisp and golden brown.
- Quick Tartar Sauce: A quick mix of mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, sweet pickle relish, red onion, fresh lemon juice, salt, and pepper.
- Jump to the printable recipe for precise measurements
Buying Crabmeat
The quality of your crab meat will make or break this recipe. Look for fresh refrigerated crab meat sold in plastic containers in the seafood department, or ask at the seafood counter. Pasteurized refrigerated crab meat, such as Phillips, is the next-best option if fresh isn’t available. Avoid shelf-stable canned crabmeat.
Stick with lump crab meat rather than jumbo lump. Jumbo lump is pricier and best saved for dishes where those oversized chunks can shine on their own; in crab cakes, they actually make the mixture harder to hold together. Before mixing, gently pick through the crab meat to remove any bits of shell or cartilage without breaking up the lumps.
How To Make Maryland Crab Cakes
Step 1: Make the binder. To start, whisk together the eggs, mayonnaise, mustard, Worcestershire, Old Bay, salt, celery, and parsley in a large bowl until well combined.
Pro Tip: Make sure everything is evenly mixed before adding the crab. Once the crab goes in, you’ll want to handle it as gently as possible to keep the lumps intact.
Step 2: Fold in the crab and panko. Add the crab meat and the panko. Gently fold the mixture together until just combined. Be careful not to overmix—the goal is to keep the crab in generous pieces rather than shredding it into small flakes.
Step 3: Shape and chill. Form the mixture into 6 cakes, then place them on a baking sheet and refrigerate for at least an hour to help them firm up. Don’t skip this step—it makes a big difference in helping the crab cakes hold their shape when cooking.
Step 4: Cook the crab cakes. Heat a large nonstick pan over medium heat with a thin layer of oil. Once hot, add the crab cakes and cook until golden brown on both sides, flipping carefully with a thin spatula—they’ll pop and sizzle, so watch for splatters.
Step 5: Make the tartar sauce and serve. While the crab cakes cook, whisk together the quick tartar sauce and chill until ready to serve. Plate the crab cakes with the sauce on the side and enjoy!
Frequently Asked Questions
In my family, we have a running rule: never order crab cakes outside of Maryland. It’s partly a joke, but it comes from growing up on authentic Maryland crab cakes, where the sweet lump crab meat is always the star and the filler is kept to a minimum. That’s exactly the philosophy behind this recipe.
You can, but I don’t recommend it. Pan-frying gives these crab cakes the crisp, golden crust and rich flavor that make them truly special. Baking or broiling will cook them through, but the texture won’t be nearly as delicious. If you’ve gone to the trouble of buying good crab meat, I think it’s worth spending a few extra minutes pan-frying the cakes.
Crab cakes usually fall apart if they aren’t chilled before cooking, are flipped too soon, or don’t have enough binder to hold them together. Be sure to refrigerate the shaped crab cakes for at least an hour before cooking, and wait until the first side is nicely browned before flipping. A thin fish spatula makes turning them much easier.
Lump crab meat is my favorite because it gives the crab cakes their signature large, tender pieces of crab. Backfin crab meat is a decent substitute if that’s all you can find. I don’t recommend using claw meat on its own, as it has a stronger flavor and a finer texture that won’t produce the same classic Maryland-style crab cake.
Crab cake Recipe Video Tutorital
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Maryland Crab Cake Recipe
Ingredients
For the Crab Cakes
- 2 large eggs
- 2½ tablespoons mayonnaise, best quality such as Hellmann's or Duke's
- 1½ teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup finely diced celery, from one stalk
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
- 1 lb lump crab meat (see note below)
- ½ cup panko
- Vegetable or canola oil, for cooking
For the Quick Tartar Sauce
- 1 cup mayonnaise, best quality such as Hellmann's or Duke's
- 1½ tablespoons sweet pickle relish
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoon minced red onion
- 1 to 2 tablespoons lemon juice, to taste, from 1 lemon
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
For the Crab Cakes
- Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil for easy clean-up.
- Combine the eggs, mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, Worcestershire, Old Bay, salt, celery, and parsley in a large bowl and mix well. Add the crab meat (be sure to check the meat for any hard and sharp cartilage) and panko; using a rubber spatula, gently fold the mixture together until just combined, being careful not to shred the crab meat. Shape into 6 cakes (each about ½ cup) and place on the prepared baking sheet. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. This helps them set.
- Preheat a large nonstick pan over medium heat and coat with oil. When the oil is hot, place the crab cakes in the pan and cook until golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes per side. Be careful as oil may splatter. Serve the crab cakes warm with the tartar sauce.
For the Quick Tartar Sauce
- In a small bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, relish, mustard, onion, and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Cover and chill until ready to serve.
Notes
- If you can only find jumbo lump crab meat, you may need to break the pieces up a bit. If the clumps are too large, the crab cakes won't hold together well.
- The nutritional information does not include the tartar sauce.
- Make-Ahead/Freezing Instructions: The crab cakes can be assembled and refrigerated, tightly covered, for up to 24 hours before cooking. They can also be frozen, uncooked, for up to 3 months; thaw overnight in the refrigerator before cooking as directed. Leftover cooked crab cakes will keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. The tartar sauce can be made and refrigerated up to 2 days in advance.
Pair with
Nutrition Information
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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Best crab cakes I ever made. Only had 8 oz of crab so I added 1/4 cup extra of panko. Did not have parsley so I added 1 finely chopped green onion. Easy and delicious.
Hi Jenn,
Another recipe of yours that we absolutely love! I follow several different cooking bloggers but yours is, by far, my favorite! I very seldom make any changes. They are wonderful as written!
I forget to make comments and of course I should. Thank you!
Jane
These are outstanding. Best I’ve ever eaten. A couple of pointers:
1) you have to flatten them as you cook them. I used plenty of oil and a lid. As they contain a raw egg product, you really need to make sure they’re thoroughly cooked inside. Don’t try to flatten them until you’ve cooked one side and flipped them over. Then your spatula won’t stick to the crab cake and cause it to fall apart.
2) You can make them smaller, or larger than directed. Larger ones are a bit harder to flatten out, but your overall cook time might be lower. We used a 10″ skillet and a couple of them turned out like small pancakes; as long as you flatten them out well they’ll cook all the way through. That said, it might be easier to make them smaller, say 1/4 cup each, instead of the directed 1/2 cup each, because then you can fit more in a pan.
3) We recommend making your own mayo for the dip. Quality mayo anyways is really important. We went off the rails on our dip and ended up spicing it up quite a bit.
4) These are really rich, especially when fried in oil. Maybe there’s another way to cook them, but they’ll continue to be very rich regardless. So be ready for leftovers, unless you have a good size crowd or a giant tummy lol.
5) We tried to follow the recipe exactly, except for the dip. But we doubled the recipe as we had at least twice the amt of crab specified. I think we did end up adding more celery and parsley than specifed tho.
6) Do not skim and buy some other product. Get the Old Bay Seasoning spice! I don’t care if you have to drive far, do it. This is a critical component.
This is a really fantastic recipe. Enjoy!
I absolutely agree with you on this. 1/4 makes more sense. It takes time to cook 1/2 cup and needs more oil and covering is a must while cooking to make sure it cooks through to hold it together with lower temperature. Thank you for the tips.
What a fabulous recipe! The crab cakes (and tartar sauce) were some of the best I’ve ever had anywhere. I had no problem with them sticking together, as I made sure to pull apart the jumbo crab pieces and refrigerate the formed cakes for over an hour. I’ll be making these again, for sure! Our guests were asking about the recipes (I also made Jenn’s corn muffins and apple tart), and my friend commented that she LOVED Once Upon a Chef and had just bought her cookbook!
Wow! The Maryland crab I purchased was crazy expensive but so worth it. This recipe was so tasty and not loaded with a ton of breadcrumbs. My husband loves crab cakes and orders them anytime we are out for dinner. He said that they were the best he’s ever had. Slowly working my way through all of your recipes. 💜. I initially was worried that the mixture was too wet but the rest time in the refrigerator was the key. Thanks for another winner, Jenn. Your recipes make me appear to be a really good cook!
Excellent recipe! Just made it for dinner and everyone said it was delicious!
I made this recipe for a friend who loves crab cakes. She said they were the best she had ever eaten. Every time I serve them they get rave reviews.
Best crab cakes I’ve ever had! Do not skimp on the fresh crabmeat, like our amazing and generous Chef has mentioned. $40 for a pound (Wegman’s) seemed steep, yes, but it was worth it. Hubby requests a bit more Old Bay next time since he’s such a fan. I might even try to use this mixture into stuffed shrimp! Thank you!
I made this recipe for my husband. He’s originally from Maryland and he loved them. So did I!! I’m so happy to have finally found a great crab cake recipe!!
This recipe is way too wet for 1 lb crabmeat half all the ingredients. 2 large eggs is way too much along with the worcester and mayo