Crab Cake Sliders With Homemade Bay Blend And Tartar Sauce Recipe

Crab cakes are especially popular along the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland and along the Mid-Atlantic coast. Some Maryland-style purists have very specific ideas about what can and cannot go in a crab cake, but crab cake lovers everywhere tend to add their own special touches when cooking them at home. Moist and spicy with a crispy surface, crab cakes can be enjoyed alone with a wedge of lemon or with a variety of sauces to complement their flavor. Serving crab cakes as sliders is a fun and versatile way to enjoy this dish because they can be offered as an appetizer, as part of a party buffet, or even for lunch or dinner as an entree.

Recipe developer Michelle Bottalico has created this recipe for crab cake sliders that features homemade bay blend and tartar sauce. The flavor of the crab meat melds with ingredients like red bell pepper, Dijon mustard, shallot, and parsley, and a bit of mayonnaise adds richness and moisture. The simplified six-spice bay blend is a cinch to make while adding another good dose of flavor to the crab cakes. The tangy and herby homemade tartar sauce features dill pickles and pairs nicely with the warmth of the crab cakes. You don't have to go to Maryland or even out to eat to enjoy this tasty seafood meal. You may be surprised how easy it can be to make fun and restaurant-worthy crab cake sliders in the comfort of your own home.

For this recipe, you'll first make a homemade bay blend, and you will need celery salt, ground bay leaves, smoked paprika, ground nutmeg, ground cloves, and ground cinnamon. Use a little olive oil for greasing the pan and drizzling on the crab cakes before baking. Besides the bay blend, the rest of the crab cake mixture will require mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, an egg, red bell pepper, celery, shallot, garlic, black pepper, minced parsley, crab meat, and panko breadcrumbs.

We used crab claw meat for this recipe, but the choice between the different grades of crab meat is up to you. Jumbo lump crab meat comes from just two muscles on the crab's body, is the largest and most expensive, and is best enjoyed on its own. This is followed by lump crab meat and backfin crab meat, which are large, broken pieces of lump and body meat and are often preferred for crab cakes. Next is claw meat, which has a stronger crab flavor that we feel holds its own when combined with all the other ingredients.

Finally, you'll need the following ingredients to make the tartar sauce: mayonnaise, dill pickles, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, dill, parsley, salt, and black pepper. Have some slider buns and lettuce on hand for serving the crab cake sliders.

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

Grease a baking sheet with olive oil.

To make the homemade bay blend, place the celery salt, bay leaves, paprika, nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon in a large bowl and stir well to mix.

To make the crabcakes, add 3 tablespoons of mayonnaise, 2 teaspoons of Dijon mustard, the egg, bell pepper, celery, shallot, garlic, pepper, and parsley to the bay blend and whisk well to combine.

Add the crab meat and breadcrumbs and stir gently to coat.

Form 12 small patties and place them on the baking sheet.

Drizzle olive oil on top of the patties and bake for about 25 minutes, flipping halfway through the cooking time, until golden brown and slightly crispy.

Meanwhile, make the tartar sauce by placing the mayonnaise, pickles, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, dill, and parsley in a medium bowl and whisking to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve the crab cakes warm on slider buns with lettuce on the bottom and tartar sauce on top.

Old Bay seasoning is a popular and aromatic spice mix mainly used to flavor seafood. It is said to have been developed in 1939 in Baltimore by a German immigrant named Gustav Brunn. The McCormick spice company purchased the rights to Old Bay in 1990. If you're wondering what's really in Old Bay seasoning, the exact composition is a closely guarded secret, but the company does reveal that the mix contains 18 different spices and herbs. Many cooks have tried to replicate this famous seasoning. We've come up with our own simplified version of a bay blend for this crab cake recipe that includes 6 different spices, the bulk of which is comprised of celery salt, ground bay leaves, and smoked paprika. The garlic, black pepper, and Dijon mustard in the crab cake mixture adds other essential flavors not in the mix itself.

When cooking recipes like soups, the bay leaves are left whole and fished out of the pot before serving. In this case, you'll need bay leaves that have been ground into a powder, since they'll be left in. You can do this by hand in a mortar and pestle. It only takes a few minutes but does require a little patience and elbow grease. If you want to get the job done faster, you can use a spice grinder or coffee grinder and pulse the leaves a few times until they turn into a powder.

Pan frying is a standard way to cook crab cakes, and you can fry them instead of baking if you prefer. They will turn out well either way. Follow the recipe steps for making the crab cake mixture and forming the patties. Then, heat a little olive oil or avocado oil on medium-high in a large, heavy-bottom skillet. A cast iron pan works very well.

Once the oil is hot, place the crab cakes in the pan and cook them for about 3-5 minutes until the underside is browned and crispy. Flip them carefully to minimize any risk of them falling apart, and cook them for another 3-4 minutes until the other side is also browned and crispy. The number of minutes may vary depending on how hot your pan is, so check them carefully so they don't burn. After frying, you may choose to blot the crab cakes with paper towels to remove excess oil before serving them.

While it's more common to fry and bake crab cakes, grill enthusiasts may be happy to know that you can break out your grill to make crab cakes too. You'll have to take a couple of precautions so they don't fall apart. Tweak your recipe to minimize moist ingredients, pat the crab meat dry, and add extra binders like egg and breadcrumbs to keep them from falling through the grill slats.