Patty style and pan-fried on both sides! They cook rather fast and Wooo are they good!
Depends on where you're looking, Chubbs.
The upscale and celebrity chefs, lately, seem to be concentrating on that domed look. And broiling, which used to be very rare, is now a common way of cooking them. Broiling first appeared in the Crisfield, MD area when cooking healthy made its appearance.
For regular cakes I prefer patty shaped, and pan-fried on both sides. For smaller versions, such as crab balls, I like them deep fried. But that's because I think of crab cakes as a meal, and crab balls as a snack.
My absolute favorite way of doing crab cakes is to serve a pan-fried cake on top of a slice of fried green tomato, and knap the whole thing with remoulade.
The upscale and celebrity chefs, lately, seem to be concentrating on that domed look. And broiling, which used to be very rare, is now a common way of cooking them. Broiling first appeared in the Crisfield, MD area when cooking healthy made its appearance.
For regular cakes I prefer patty shaped, and pan-fried on both sides. For smaller versions, such as crab balls, I like them deep fried. But that's because I think of crab cakes as a meal, and crab balls as a snack.
My absolute favorite way of doing crab cakes is to serve a pan-fried cake on top of a slice of fried green tomato, and knap the whole thing with remoulade.
>Most folks in Alaska keep their crab-pots in the garage <
This line threw me for a minute, Kevin, until I realized you were talking about the cooking pots.
On the East Coast, crab pot refers to the traps/nets used to catch crabs, the same way "lobster pot" refers to those wonderful lathe & net traps used for lobsters. For instance, when Friend Wife and I were crabbing in North Carolina last month, we had six pots between us.
I don't know what the nomenclature is on the West Coast. Hoop nets are the preferred way of catching Dungenese. Small versions of those (they're as much as four feet in diameter out west, but we're talking about 16-18 inches on the East Coast versions) have been showing up on the East Coast, but drop-side box traps remain the favorite among non-professionals.
This line threw me for a minute, Kevin, until I realized you were talking about the cooking pots.
On the East Coast, crab pot refers to the traps/nets used to catch crabs, the same way "lobster pot" refers to those wonderful lathe & net traps used for lobsters. For instance, when Friend Wife and I were crabbing in North Carolina last month, we had six pots between us.
I don't know what the nomenclature is on the West Coast. Hoop nets are the preferred way of catching Dungenese. Small versions of those (they're as much as four feet in diameter out west, but we're talking about 16-18 inches on the East Coast versions) have been showing up on the East Coast, but drop-side box traps remain the favorite among non-professionals.
Once, at a Fairbanks hotel our crabcakes were so popular with the summer tourists that we invested in a beautiful copper & stainless flat griddle w/ hood positioned just inside the fine dining restaurant's entry, still within sight (and scent!) of our sandwich shop and our patio 'salmon-bake' tavern.
At first I staffed one cook during evening hours. WHOA! Before long, it was staffed nearly 24 hours hours a day and the cooks who worked it were so busy that a few weeks into the first season we staffed a pair of prep-cooks back in the kitchen to keep up w/ the load! Soon, (because it was a station that customers felt free to walk up to and order from themselves- and they TIPPED the cook) my staff were fighting over who got to work it!
During that first summer, as we were learning our way with this new novelty, we discovered that our restaurant staffs LOVED sandwiching the crabcakes onto one of our baking-staff's signature cottage-cheese/dill rolls that was among other fresh breads/rolls in our fine dining-room's bread basket. Next summer, what do you think I placed on our menu? EXACTLY! A crabcake sandwich on a cottage-cheese/dill bun!
That was in 1996 and after I left the hotel, that sandwich was spread to and served at all of the Princess lodges and hotels in Alaska, at the same copper-griddle stations, and to my knowledge (last veirified about 3 years ago) that sandwich is still offered- where it's been able to gather even more grab n' go foot traffic at all the properties... sadly though, I hear they now purchase a frozen crabcake, whereas we hand-mixed and hand-pressed our own. A proud moment for me and my staff from that year- most of whom, like me, are no longer w/Princess, tho it was a great outfit to work for.
At first I staffed one cook during evening hours. WHOA! Before long, it was staffed nearly 24 hours hours a day and the cooks who worked it were so busy that a few weeks into the first season we staffed a pair of prep-cooks back in the kitchen to keep up w/ the load! Soon, (because it was a station that customers felt free to walk up to and order from themselves- and they TIPPED the cook) my staff were fighting over who got to work it!
During that first summer, as we were learning our way with this new novelty, we discovered that our restaurant staffs LOVED sandwiching the crabcakes onto one of our baking-staff's signature cottage-cheese/dill rolls that was among other fresh breads/rolls in our fine dining-room's bread basket. Next summer, what do you think I placed on our menu? EXACTLY! A crabcake sandwich on a cottage-cheese/dill bun!
That was in 1996 and after I left the hotel, that sandwich was spread to and served at all of the Princess lodges and hotels in Alaska, at the same copper-griddle stations, and to my knowledge (last veirified about 3 years ago) that sandwich is still offered- where it's been able to gather even more grab n' go foot traffic at all the properties... sadly though, I hear they now purchase a frozen crabcake, whereas we hand-mixed and hand-pressed our own. A proud moment for me and my staff from that year- most of whom, like me, are no longer w/Princess, tho it was a great outfit to work for.