How to Make the Best Authentic Maryland Crabcakes

Maryland's Crabcakes Are The Best!

I hate to admit it, but I am a Southern Maryland girl born and raised. Besides the rich history found in Southern Maryland, many people visit for the seafood. Maryland is famous for its blue crabs, oysters, and all manner of seafood fresh-caught from the Chesapeake Bay. Unfortunately, from pollution and overfishing, our supply of Chesapeake seafood is dwindling. So now is your time to partake before it's nearly gone!

One thing I always do when I visit my Maryland is eat an authentic Maryland Blue Lump Crab Cake. These crabcakes can be found in many restaurants all over Maryland, but I have found that some of the best crabcakes can be found right in St. Mary's County. If you do not live in the area and still long for that perfect Maryland Blue crab cake trying making some for yourself. I will share a few tips on ordering the crab meat from out-of-state and also share a recipe that is a combination of a few recipes that I own.

Where to Order

There are many online stores that sell Maryland crab meat and crabcakes; however, there are only a few that will ship live Maryland blue crabs directly to your house. My suggestions for the best online stores are as follows:

Chesapeake Crab Connection.com: this site sells live maryland blue crabs by the dozen and also by the bushel. They also sell the already picked crab meat. They will ship your purchase overnight and they have many testimonials as to the quality of the crab meat and their customer service. If you must buy Maryland crabs or crab meat online, I say use this online store first.

Also, if you are looking for somewhere with a homier-Chespeake Bay feel, you may want to try Linton Seafood.com. This store offers different sizes Maryland Blue Crabs, as well as female blue crabs...which if you know anything about Blue Crabs, they are sweeter than their male counterparts.

Of course the most preferable way to get your Maryland Blue Crabs is to visit Maryland and pick some up yourself. I advise that if you are in Maryland between the months of June and October, pick up some crabs and pick the meat and freeze it! The sweetness and quality of the meat is unbeatable and you will thank yourself later for saving the meat to make crab cakes for months afterwards.

If you are in the Southern Maryland area, you will want to purchase your own bushel of crabs from Copsey's Seafood Restaurant in Mechanicsville, MD, Captain Leonard's Seafood Market in Mechanicsvcille or Hayden's Seafood located in Charlotte Hall, MD (a town directly to the north and somewhat in between the Mechanicsville area). Ensure that you pick the crab meat as soon as you have made your purchase and freeze it immediately.

Links to Online Stores

• Maryland Steamed Crabs | Jumbo Bluecrabs | Shipped, Buy Online
  Buy fresh Maryland seafood online from Lintons Seafood, specializing in overnight seafood delivery including Maryland blue crab and lobster shipped fresh.
• Maryland Blue Crabs Crab Meat Mail Order Blue Crabs bushel blue craw crabs Maryland Chesapeake Bay
  Maryland Crabs, Blue Crabs Soft Shell Crabs. Shipped steamed crabs and crab meat by mail

My Favorite Crab Cake Recipe

Well, my crab cake recipe comes from a combination of a couple recipes that my husband and I own and use. My husband actually made crab cakes a few months ago and used a crab cake recipe right off of the Old Bay seasoning's box! With as many years as I have been using Old Bay in my seafood dishes, I never noticed that recipe was even there! Nonetheless, it is a pretty decent crab cake recipe and fully embodies the flavor of a Maryland Blue Crab Cake. The recipe that I used before discovering the Old Bay recipe, is a recipe from the Capital Feasts cookbook...a cookbook that was given to me that used to be my grandfather's while he worked at the White House. Check out my combination of these two fabulous crab cake recipes:

Makes 8 crabcakes. Serve with french fries or kettle chips. Add tartar sauce or a little bit of cocktail sauce, but if you did the recipe right you won't want any condiments to cover up the flavor of the crabcake itself!

Want to have your own Maryland Crab Feast but not sure what you'll need? Check out my hub on Having Your Own Maryland Crab Feast here.

Ingredients for Kitty's Crabcakes

• 4 cups Maryland blue crabmeat, picked and shredded
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp dry mustard
• 1 cup bread crumbs
• 2 tsp Old Bay seasoning
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 tsp parsley
• 2 tbsp mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup flour

Instructions for Kitty's Crabcakes

1. Combine the crabmeat, seasonings, mayo and parsley. Shape this crabmeat mixture into 8 round crab cakes. Refrigerate for 2 hours.
2. Dip the crabcakes into the flour, then into the beaten egg, then into the bread crumbs. Cover the cakes fully in the bread crumbs.
3. Melt the butter in a skillet over the stove, and sauté the cakes over medium-high heat until golden brown.

Watch How a Maryland Crabcake Is Made With Poker Pros!

© 2010 Kitty Fields

Comments

The Lion Queen on February 08, 2011:

LOL! I'm using that 'scent of redneck' thing. And I would pay anything to see two Amish guys at a rock concert. Rufus??? Yikes.

Ok, and stuffed ham...never had it. Legend has it that Southern MD dines on the occasional nutria...say it isn't so??? I heard that from Salisbury people.

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My brother Troy is completely hilarious, and about the most likable person ever made--just a good guy all the way through. He's one of my best friends, and I'm very proud of him. He just left tonight for a month in the Dominican Republic on missionary work. We co-own a business, and I tell him that there's some pretty crucial things coming up with it, he says, "make me rich, ma. See ya later, buddy." All of my brothers call me buddy, and never call each other that. Who the hell knows what goes on in the male brain? My family is very close, we've been through a good amount together. Troy and I probably joke around the most, but my whole family is definitely good humored. The group vote from us is that we pretty much cannot have uncool people in our family...except for my dad. He's all solemn, and serious and fatherly, but the boys and I have spent so much time crushing his spirit that he's pretty much in "if you can't beat 'em join 'em" mode. I adore my dad's strange intensity--it balances us out. The rest of us can't stay serious for beans. Plus, his intensity gives us more to tease.

I'm at the hospital tomorrow, and I'm really hoping you end up choosing labor and delivery! We're training this ER nurse right now, and when she said to me, "you all are killing me." I told her how much that made my wicked little heart dance. I know ER/trauma nurses think we're on vacation in the maternity ward, and it's always nice to crush their dreams.

Happy to stop by!

Kitty Fields (author) from Summerland on February 08, 2011:

Wow, I have to read the redneck pick-up line hub! And your brother is hilarious, too! Is your whole family as funny?

Yes, where I grew up there were plenty of Amish folks...I would find myself getting stuck behind their buggies on some of the backroads and b*tching about it simply for the fact that it would take twenty minutes to get five miles. My mom used to own a bunch of horses and the blacksmith she used was an Amish man named Rufus. He barely had any teeth in his head, but he would tell us stories about being a teenager and how he and his cousin bought a pick-up truck and hid it out in the woods. They took the pick-up truck to an AC/DC concert once in the 80s...can you imagine seeing two Amish men at a rock concert? Too much...

How about stuffed ham? Have you ever tasted it or even heard of it? I think it's a St. Mary's County, MD thing...most people look at me sideways when I ask them if they've ever had stuffed ham.

Yes, I have a cousin named Donna that lives out in Burbank, CA and she thoroughly loves it and will definitely never move back to Maryland. She used to say that every time her plane landed in Maryland, she could immediately smell the scent of "redneck".

Thanks for visiting again! :)

The Lion Queen on February 08, 2011:

LOL!! OMG...that is awesome! Silly, silly husband, such sweet naivety. I think I'm finding sharing MD stories irresistible. The Amish make great cookies! My mother had a habit of whispering "Black" whenever she was talking about a "Black" person and the windows were open. I kept telling her, "Mom, we're the only non-white family in this neighborhood, the secret's out. And Martin Luther King and I have a dream that you will stop doing that." I also, while we're here, wrote a hub about my experience with a redneck in MD who used the timeless pick up line with me of, "I'm not racist." Talk about a pantie dropper.

Just last year my brother woke up to a swastika sprayed on his car, and the genius behind the work had sloppily sprayed the entire street's cars. My brother, he's 29, called it "poorly done," and was bemoaning how Americans are just getting so lazy. There was a time when racists took pride in their work--seeking out their target audience, and making quality hate statements that really shined. Nowadays people just don't take the time to hone their craft.

Geez, people say I'm funny, and if that's true, I developed a sense of humor the same way everyone who has one did--survival code. On to more important things...do come to visit CA!! It's wonderful. It's a place that didn't overwhelm me when I first came, but as I learned more, and discovered more, it just kept getting better. I am exaggerating, I could leave CA one day, and probably will, but I'm in no hurry. I have to phone my mother about that crab cake recipe to see if it is how I think it is. No one in my family measures. I need to lay off the MD story thing, I could be here all day!

Kitty Fields (author) from Summerland on February 08, 2011:

Oh my gosh! How hilarious! I come from Southern Maryland...a land filled with Amish buggies and redneck farmers. My husband came to visit my family with me for the first time about 3 years ago and I kept telling him how redneck my town was...he tried to disagree and say, "no, I think they're just country folk." And as soon as he said that, we saw a young guy standing in front of us with a t-shirt that had a confederate flag on the back and it said, "Never apologize when you know you're right!" My hubby looked at me and said, "point taken." I have never been to California, but I live in Florida and enjoy the weather we have here, as well. I am not sure if I will ever move back to Maryland and if I do, it will definitely not be Southern Maryland. Thanks for stopping by and yes, I would love to have your mother's recipe! Have a great day!

The Lion Queen on February 07, 2011:

I know right! People visit Baltimore or College Park and think it's great, and that I'm crazy. Marylanders reel unsuspecting tourists in with their crab cakes, and their inner harbor, and their pretense of reasonableness. But a true Marylander knows there's more to the state than Baltimore. There are places there you'll need a time machine set on backward to get to. The shopping center near my parents--per the farmer's will they literally had to wait for the one lone cow to die before they could build on that land. One of my mother's bible studies referred to where she lived, as "the colored part of town" and she was completely serious. Granted, she was older, but my God, what channel was her hearing aid on when integration happened? But...it's my home, and I will always think of it affectionately, as long as I live. I will also be on the next thing smoking after about a week or so's visit.

It would take dynamite to get me out of California. When my parents ask if I'll ever move back I tell them that I'm headed out to shop for grave sites here. When the big earthquake hits us, I will happily live on the island formerly known as California. I stepped outside to 70 degrees and holding today, and I delayed my flight to Maryland again. My dad's definitely gonna hate that.

My mother's recipe is not that different, I'll send it to you!

Kitty Fields (author) from Summerland on February 07, 2011:

it is so true! Haha...you sound just like me! I write hubs about maryland and reminisce about my childhood and teenage memories, but then when I go back I usually remember..."oh, this is why I left". How does your family do crab cakes? Yes, most people have no idea what it is to properly cook a blue crab. thanks so much for reading and stopping by! :)

The Lion Queen on February 07, 2011:

Ahhhh...you can take the girl out of Maryland, but you can't take the Maryland out of the girl. Your email made me think of home...I think it's time for a visit back to MD before I get sappy, and forget why I left ;-). In my family we do crab cakes differently, but good LORD you can not find better crab cakes in the world than Maryland. I was trying to explain to some of my West-Coasties what it is to hunt your food around the kitchen and then cook it in beer. They thought I was crazy. And...what else is new.

lilibees on December 28, 2010:

Sounds wonderful a vote up and useful from me!