After I go on my BBQ tour of the South, I’d like to eat my way through the Northeast. When this happens, I’d like to be spending my days cracking open oyster shells, lobster claws and little crab bodies. In an effort to stop sounding like a creep, let’s talk crab.
Some form of crab cakes have been around since English settlers called the Mid-Atlantic states home in the original colonies. Native peoples aided the settlers in finding the best places up and down the coast to find crabs. It was not until 1930′s, in the New York World’s Fair Cookbook that the term “crab cake” was used to describe these rich little patties; more specifically, they were called, “Baltimore Crab Cakes.” The first known recipe, where it was given such a title, was found in the 1939 New York World’s Fair Cook Book. However, the use of “crab patties”, or “crab croquettes” was regular and frequent.
On the East coast they are often made with the popular blue crab, found in the Chesapeake Bay. Whereas on the west coast, cakes are made with dungeness crabs, which have a sweeter flavor than other crab meat. Regardless of what kind of crab you use, the taste is also dependent on what ingredients you add to it in which you need binders/thickeners and flavors.
The use of thickeners is an ancient way to bulk up scarce meat to form a large meal, or to extend little meat for much longer. In order to do so, one must use thickeners such as bread crumbs, saltine crackers, onion, egg, mayonnaise. The onions and mayo clearly add flavor, but the use of some Old Bay Seasoning gives it an extra kick.
After mixing all ingredients together and forming them into balls or patties, there are a couple of schools of thought on how to cook them. Different regions are more prone to deep frying (I don’t think I’d be too chastised to suggest that the south deep fries more so than say, California), and others pan searing (which I did), but I have also heard of broiling them. Whichever way you choose to serve your crab cakes, so long as they have a crispy outer shell, they will be a rich delicacy sure to leave you wanting more.
If you’re going to quote research information from somewhere, such as you do in your second paragraph about crab cakes using information from the Food Timeline website, it would be courteous to give them the credit. You’d want the same, I’m sure, if the roles were reversed.
Peggy –
The Food Time Line was sited in the post elsewhere, but I have added it to the second paragraph as well. I fully comprehend the fact that it is always importance to site one’s sources. Thank you for your editor’s eye; one could always use it.