Made Better With Butter

Recipes / Seafood

Dungeness Crab Cakes

Big chunks of fresh Dungeness held together with as little binder as it'll take, chilled, then fried crisp in small batches.

Prep
15 min
Cook
About 1 hr, with 30 min chilling
Serves
4 cakes
Jump to the recipe
Three golden-brown crab cakes on a white plate, flecked with scallion

What we changed

Changes from the America's Test Kitchen original. Where it came from

  • More crab, in big chunks. Up to 1½ lb of fresh-picked Dungeness instead of 1 lb, kept in the biggest pieces you can. Never shred it.
  • The least binder that works. Start with 2 tbsp of breadcrumbs and add more a spoonful at a time only if the mix won't hold. The book calls for up to 6.
  • Fry in batches. Two or three cakes at a time so the pan stays hot and they crisp instead of steam.

The best crab cakes are mostly crab. Start from America’s Test Kitchen’s classic, then strip it back: as little breadcrumb as the mix will tolerate, Dungeness in chunks big enough to recognize, and a cold rest so they hold together in the pan.

Where the crab came from

We dive for ours, then cook them right there on the beach. Before anything goes in the pot, every crab gets checked twice:

  • Shell. Squeeze the shell. If it flexes, it’s a soft-shell that has just molted, and in Washington those go straight back. They’re also mostly water, so you’d get very little meat anyway.
  • Size and sex. Only males at least 6¼ inches across the back, measured with a crab caliper inside the points. Females and anything short go back too. You’ll need a fishing license and a crab catch record card — the WDFW crabbing page has the current rules.

Cooking the crab

Boil the crabs for 11 minutes, then plunge them straight into cold water. The shock stops the cooking and firms the meat, so the shells crack cleanly and the leg tips slide out whole — exactly the big pieces you want here.

Keeping them together

Three things matter more than the recipe itself. Handle the crab like it’s fragile, because it is. Use only enough binder to make the mix cling. And chill the shaped cakes before frying; cold cakes hold their shape, warm ones fall apart. Then fry in small batches so each one gets a proper crust.

Make it a crab party

If you dive or crab with friends, split the day in two. Cook and eat the first round on the beach. Then take the rest home and set up an assembly line: a couple of people cleaning and picking crab, someone mixing and shaping cakes, someone at the stove, and someone serving them hot — or wrapping the extras for the freezer.

Two divers in drysuits on the beach, one holding up a Dungeness crab
Straight out of the water.
Two divers in drysuits on a pebble beach sorting Dungeness crab into a tub of seawater, with a pot of cooked crab beside them
Sorting the catch on the beach. Every crab gets checked before it goes in the pot.
A platter piled high with boiled Dungeness crab and a well of melted butter
After the 11-minute boil and the cold plunge.

Make it

Makes 4 cakes

Ingredients

  1. In a large bowl, toss the crab with the breadcrumbs, scallions, herbs and Old Bay using your hands or a spatula — lift and turn, don't stir. Fold in the mayonnaise, season, then fold in the egg.
  2. Squeeze a little in your palm. If it holds, stop. If it falls apart, add breadcrumbs a spoonful at a time until it just clings.
  3. Shape into 4 thick cakes, about 3 inches across, pressing the chunks together rather than mashing them. Cover and chill until firm, at least 30 minutes.
  4. Dredge each cake lightly in flour. Heat the oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until it shimmers.
  5. Fry 2 or 3 cakes at a time, without crowding, until deep brown and crisp, 4–5 minutes per side. Flip once, gently. Serve with lemon.

Good to know

  • The mix is wet and loose because there's so little binder. The chill is what holds it together — don't skip it.
  • The cakes can be shaped and chilled up to a day ahead.
  • Picked crab from the store works, but fresh Dungeness is the whole point.