Jumbo lump crab meat shines brightly in this recipe for griddle grilled crab cakes with rosemary aioli.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
Many years ago, I was introduced to crab cakes by a waiter who insisted that they were better than what I would find in Maryland. To the contrary, what I received was more “cake” than “crab,” a dense patty that tasted like Italian seasoned sawdust with no noticeable crab meat in sight. Since then, I have been apprehensive about ordering crab cakes while dining out, preferring instead to make them at home, where I can ensure that the crab is truly the star of the show.
It all begins with high quality crab meat. Just like steak, you get what you pay for, so be prepared to spend a little more for premium jumbo lump crab meat. After that, keep the additional ingredients (i.e. filler) to a minimum. The goal is to gently flavor the crab while adding just enough bread crumbs and egg to hold them together during the cooking process.
Next, when blending the ingredients, it’s important not to overwork the crab meat. Instead, I gently fold these precious jewels into the other ingredients so that they remain as whole as possible. Finally, when cooking the crab cakes, the secret is to brown the exterior while gently warming the interior. For this, I utilize one of our favorite techniques – griddle grilling. Round them out with a flavorful rosemary aioli and you’ll have no need to ever roll the dice on restaurant crab cakes again!
Griddle Grilled Crab Cakes with Rosemary Aioli Recipe
Makes:
Takes:
Ingredients
Rosemary Aioli
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/4 cup loosely packed parsley
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons fresh rosemary leaves
- 1/4 teaspoon Morton Coarse Kosher Salt
- 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
The Crab Cake
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1 egg
- 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
- 2 teaspoons Old Bay seasoning
- 2 cups panko breadcrumbs (2/3 cup (40 g) for binder, 1 1/3 cup (80 g) for exterior coating)
- 1 pound jumbo lump crab meat
- 3 tablespoons canola oil
These recipes were created in US Customary measurements and the conversion to metric is being done by calculations. They should be accurate, but it is possible there could be an error. If you find one, please let us know in the comments at the bottom of the page
Method
- Prep. To create the rosemary aioli, begin by mincing the garlic and finely chop the rosemary.
- Combine the mayonnaise, garlic, parsley, lemon juice, rosemary, salt, and pepper in a blender. Puree the mixture until smooth. Refrigerate the rosemary aioli until ready to use.
- In a medium bowl, combine the mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, egg, Worcestershire sauce, Old Bay seasoning, and 2/3 cup (40 g) of the Panko breadcrumbs (the remainder of the breadcrumbs with be used to coat the exterior of the crab cakes). Mix ingredients until fully combined. Gently fold the crab meat into the mixture trying not to break up the crab meat any more than necessary.
- Divide the crab mixture into 1/4 cup (31.3 g) portions then gently form into 6 to 8 1-inch (2.5-cm) thick patties. Pour the remaining panko breadcrumbs into a shallow bowl. Coat each side of the crab cake patties with the panko breadcrumbs. Refrigerate the crab cakes while you pre-heat the grill.
- Fire up. Prepare a grill for direct cooking by evenly spreading a chimney full of pre-heated charcoal briquets across the grill’s charcoal grate. Adjust the grill vents to bring the temperature to about 375°F (190.6°C). On a gas grill, adjust the temperature knobs to maintain a temperature of approximately 375°F (190.6°C).
- Add a griddle to the main grill grate and let it preheat for at least 5 minutes.
- Once the griddle is hot, coat the top with canola oil.
- Cook. Griddle grill the crab cakes, flipping every 2 minutes until cooked through and golden brown on both sides, approximately 8 to 10 minutes total. Note that hot spots on the griddle may require you to move some of the crab cakes to another part of the griddle if they are browning too quickly.
- Serve. Remove the crab cakes from the griddle, plate, and top with the rosemary aioli. Serve immediately.
High quality websites are expensive to run. If you help us, we’ll pay you back bigtime with an ad-free experience and a lot of freebies!
Millions come to AmazingRibs.com every month for high quality tested recipes, tips on technique, science, mythbusting, product reviews, and inspiration. But it is expensive to run a website with more than 2,000 pages and we don’t have a big corporate partner to subsidize us.
Our most important source of sustenance is people who join our Pitmaster Club. But please don’t think of it as a donation. Members get MANY great benefits. We block all third-party ads, we give members free ebooks, magazines, interviews, webinars, more recipes, a monthly sweepstakes with prizes worth up to $2,000, discounts on products, and best of all a community of like-minded cooks free of flame wars. Click below to see all the benefits, take a free 30 day trial, and help keep this site alive.
Post comments and questions below
1) Please try the search box at the top of every page before you ask for help.
2) Try to post your question to the appropriate page.
3) Tell us everything we need to know to help such as the type of cooker and thermometer. Dial thermometers are often off by as much as 50°F so if you are not using a good digital thermometer we probably can’t help you with time and temp questions. Please read this article about thermometers.
4) If you are a member of the Pitmaster Club, your comments login is probably different.
5) Posts with links in them may not appear immediately.
Moderators