Dungeness Crab Cakes

These are the crab cakes you’ve always wanted. This recipe has enough binder to hold it together but not enough to overpower the key ingredient: the crab.

As a Southerner, this recipe began with local blue crab meat, but since moving to the Pacific Northwest, I have made it with Dungeness crab. Living in the Pacific Northwest, I’ve adopted Dungeness crab for its clean, sweet flavor and meatiness. Whichever crab you decide to use, the goal is always to keep it simple and focus on the crab. The key is to source fresh, top-tier crab meat because there’s nowhere to hide in a recipe this simple.

Restaurants that skimp on quality crab meat will use excessive binder and filler, deep fry the cakes, and mask the flavor with unnecessary ingredients. Not these. These are the crab cakes we feature in our restaurant Hattaway’s on Alder when Dungeness crab is at its peak. They are baked in the oven to seize the crab meat and binder together to hold the perfect balance of texture and fresh crab flavor. This method gives you a perfectly balanced texture and rich, fresh crab flavor. It’s what I bring to Friendsgiving every November when Dungeness crab season kicks off, and it’s always a fantastic way to start the celebration.

When crushing the saltines, think “cracker dust”—you want it fine enough to bind without getting in the way. Serve the crab cakes with remoulade and lemon.

Main Ingredients:

Dungeness Crab is a Pacific Northwest treasure with its sweet, delicate flavor and substantial, flaky texture. Its freshness is paramount for this recipe, so use high-quality crab meat. Again, this recipe works just as well with blue crab; look for colossal or jumbo lump crab meat.

Eggs work as a binder, holding everything together without weighing the mixture down. This gives the crab cake structure while keeping the texture light.

Mayonnaise adds a little fat to keep the crab cakes from drying out. Its mild flavor works seamlessly with the crab, helping to bind the mixture without overpowering it.

Dry Spice/Cajun Seasoning gives a little spice and flavor to the crab cake. Our recipe for Cajun Seasoning contains salt which helps with the overall seasoning.

Finely Crushed Saltine Crackers act as the structural binder. It holds the mixture together just enough, letting the crab remain the focus.