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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These crab cakes were restaurant quality. We do crab legs for New Years. Made these with our left over crab and they were so good!!! The sauce is unique.
Love these crab cakes. Not a bunch of filler. You taste the crab and everything else just brings out more flavor. We halve the recipe for the two of us. Makes four crab cakes at 1/2 cup each. We serve it over the Caesar salad on this website. The only change we made was to leave out the Panko until the end. Then measure out a half cup of the mixture in round measuring cup, put it in plastic to help form a cake and then carefully place it on a plate of Panko and make the crust around it. Use your hands to keep it in the right shape. A little slippery but it’s doable. Thanks Jenn.
This is my go-to recipe for New Year’s Eve. My husband is a crab cake junkie and absolutely loves these. The only change I make is that I omit celery and make half of the tarter sauce. It’s an outstanding recipe. Thank you so much for sharing it with us!
Maryland born and bred. Very similar recipie to my families 4th generation. The key, and I can’t stress this enough, to this or any crab cake recipe is the crab meat. Fresh MD lump or backfin which can be very difficult to obtain the further you get from the Chesapeake and off season even if your local. Most Maryland restaurants (95%) don’t serve Maryland crabmeat anymore due to the cost and to a lesser extent the supply.
Many of the issues that people have commented negatively I would be willing to bet are related to using imported or previously frozen or canned crab meat. All of which is inferior to the fresh MD product which has a sweet crab flavor that’s a must for crab cakes. Most restaurants over season their cakes to hide the inferior quality crabmeat. Butter, Salt, Old Bay, Worcester Sauce, and Mustard in elevated amounts to make up for the deficiency of the product. Fools a lot of people who are willing to shell out big bucks for a crab cake that is no comparison to the authentic product. Yeah, call me a crab snob but I grew up catching, cooking, and eating the real thing. Not gonna change it after almost seventy years.
I served these crab cakes last night (Christmas Eve) and they are truly are the best…moist, flavourful, and festive. I used best quality frozen crab meat and was very pleased with the result. This will become a new favourite.
I made these for a quiet New Year’s Eve dinner with my husband. The smell of these cooking caught his attention but when he saw the sauce, his comment was that he might prefer cocktail over tartar sauce. Well, he raved about the crab cakes, including the sauce, and definitely wants them in heavy meal rotation! The only slight modification I made was to cut back on the sweet relish and add some finely minced garlic. Delish!!
We lived in Northern Virginia (DC) for six years and Virginia Beach for two, and these fit our memories of awesome crab cakes. (I could never beat the atmosphere at Chick’s Oyster Bar in VB, but these have the taste.) I followed the recipe exactly…except the celery, because we are purists :). The price of crab has gone sky high since the pandemic, but these were worth every penny for good lump crab meat. We’ve never found a restaurant that made crab cakes that fit our expectations, but these do. Thanks! Love this recipe! Another keeper!
Include jalapeño and serve with corn salsa.
Hi Jenn, I see you must have spent some time in Maryland since you are about the only one outside of there to get the recipe almost right. 🙂 Just a note from someone from there and spent many days for lunch at G&M’s that has about the best crab cake in Maryland. Add a little of the dry mustard along with the wet and we would only put in 1 extra large egg and not two large eggs. If you have to add breadcrumbs, please reduce by half or use one slice of bread with a little milk. G&M’s would use special and lump meat for the inside of the cake and coat the outside with back fin lump and then broil them after 30 minutes in the frig. I don’t know of anybody in Maryland that would add celery to the crab cakes. We want the flavor of the crab to shine. You now have pretty much the original recipe from Maryland. We would use the other parts of the crab for soup or stews or pasta dishes and I would be very happy for that in the winter months. enjoy and I like what you did. the recipe was actually a 4.5 star but, I had to stop at 4.
Say it again, You have to from MD. I have never put celery in my crab cakes either
Fantastic recipe that was enjoyed by the entire family! I cooked them in an air fryer and would highly recommend. 8 minutes per side at 375 degrees.
Wondering if this will work with imitation crab since I’m allergic to shellfish
Hi Riah, Yes it will work, although the taste will be different.
Has anyone tried baking these in the oven, instead of frying them?
No amounts given for ingredients
Hi Mary, It sounds like you are just looking at the portion of the page that has the pictures with some instructions underneath. If you scroll down a bit to under the pictures, you’ll find the full recipe. Alternatively, at the very top of the page, to the right of the recipe name, you’ll see an orange/red button that says Jump to Recipe – if you click on that, it will take you directly to the recipe. Hope that clarifies!
Ditto! I would love to save a dish washing 😁 Any oven baking advice would be great!
Hi Shawna, I like the crab cakes best pan-fried but you can cook them in the oven. I’d suggest you use a combination of baking and broiling; bake them in a 350-degree oven on a lightly greased baking sheet for about twenty minutes, or until hot (and it’s not necessary to flip them). Then I’d slide them under the broiler for about a minute to get them golden brown on top. Enjoy!
I just made these crab cakes. I followed the recipe exactly. I spent $50 on fresh frozen crab and shelled it.
It was so salty that I may have to throw them away. If I ever can afford to make them again, I will either eliminate the Old Bay Spice or reduce by half. I found them inedible. So disappointed!!
Really tasty and so easy to make! A real crowd pleaser! Everyone always raves about them when I make them.
I have even made these with good quality raw prawns, as I couldn’t find crabmeat. Both are delicious! I am thinking of combing crab and prawns another time to get the best of both!
Thank you for such a wonderful recipe!