Crab cakes won't hold together!

<Mitch@this_is_not_a_real_address.com> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

We're making this recipe:
http://seafood.allrecipes.com/az/88352.asp

The cakes won't hold together. We tried adding more egg and crumbs,
but as soon as the cake is set on a plate, it collapses.

We're using lump crab (expensive!)

Good crab cakes are rather delicate. Have you tried letting the raw mixture
sit in the fridge for an hour or so before cooking?

--
Peter Aitken

On Thu 08 Dec 2005 03:36:43p, Thus Spake Zarathustra, or was it
Mitch@this_is_not_a_real_address.com?

Quoted message said:

We're making this recipe:
http://seafood.allrecipes.com/az/88352.asp

The cakes won't hold together. We tried adding more egg and crumbs,
but as soon as the cake is set on a plate, it collapses.

We're using lump crab (expensive!)

I confess that I don't make crabcakes very often, but I don't usually have
this problem. I can't see anything wrong with the recipe. Are you
refrigerating the formed crabcakes as the recipe suggests that you can? I
find it mandatory, in order that they firm up properly.

--
Wayne Boatwright *¿*
_____________________________________________

A chicken in every pot is a *LOT* of chicken!

Quoted message said:

Good crab cakes are rather delicate. Have you tried letting the raw mixture
sit in the fridge for an hour or so before cooking?

They're in the fridge right now. Hopefully that will help. I see
that a few of them crumbled or broke in half.

Maybe you're not compressing the mixture together tightly enough when
you form the crab cakes, or maybe the pieces of crab are too big and
you need to break them up more.

"djs0302" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Maybe you're not compressing the mixture together tightly enough when
you form the crab cakes, or maybe the pieces of crab are too big and
you need to break them up more.

If one has lump crab, one (me!) doesn't want to break up the lumps. Easy
does it.

This is what I intend to do the next time I made crab cakes with lump crab.
From any recipe similar to yours, I intend to make many more crab cakes than
I normally make; say instead of the 8 as your recipe says to make, perhaps
at least 12. I won't care if they come together in a solid packed cake. I
will chose the proper pan to do all of them at once. I will brown them for 3
minutes in medium heat; and in the same pan, place them in a hot oven to
finish off the next 3 minutes under the broiler.

I don't use saltines in my crabcakes. I feel that most saltines are
probably made of awful ingredients; but most of all, I think they are too
dry and break up the ability to keep your cake into a cake. Next time give
some thought to having some lightly salted (3?) day-old bread made into
breadcrumbs, not too fine. I guess one could even let the saltines soak a
bit in a tiny bit of the milk to soften them up.

I got the above (second paragraph) idea from having the best crabs of my
life last month. The week before at a very special fish house, I had some
pretty lousy ones.

My big lump crab cakes always break apart. The crab cakes I had at the
great restaurant definitely were open (not solid cakes) and you could see
the lovely lumps pulling apart and they had some teeny-tiny looked-like red
peppers in there along with probably chives or the green onion tops.
Dee Dee

In article <[email hidden]>,

djs0302 said:

Maybe you're not compressing the mixture together tightly enough when
you form the crab cakes, or maybe the pieces of crab are too big and
you need to break them up more.

Make stuffed crabs. :-)
Stuff the mix into a crab shell and bake.

That way it won't matter.......

A small custard dish would work in place of a crab shell.

Just an idea?

Cheers!
--
Om.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-[censored]." -Jack Nicholson

Perhaps you're using too much of the crumbs. They are used to keep the
mixture light.
Regards,
Nancree

On Thu, 08 Dec 2005 22:36:43 GMT, in rec.food.cooking,

Mitch@this_is_not_a_real_address.com said:

We're making this recipe:
http://seafood.allrecipes.com/az/88352.asp

The cakes won't hold together. We tried adding more egg and crumbs,
but as soon as the cake is set on a plate, it collapses.

We're using lump crab (expensive!)

Try Superglue!

Quoted message said:

Try Superglue!

That worked! :-)

Actually, the fridge helped. Last time we tried crab cakes we didn't
refrigerate them, and they totally fell apart.

This time, an hour in the fridge did the trick.
Yum. I had some (fake) wasabi on mine.

<Mitch@this_is_not_a_real_address.com> wrote in message >

Quoted message said:

Actually, the fridge helped. Last time we tried crab cakes we didn't
refrigerate them, and they totally fell apart.

This time, an hour in the fridge did the trick.
Yum. I had some (fake) wasabi on mine.

You're absolutely right - refrigeration after mixing is the key to crab
cakes holding together. Plus, when turning them in the pan, use spatulas
on both sides and handle gently.

Dora