So here is a simple recipe for crab cake sliders in the crock pot … my brain is churning on another protein to compliment.
My first thought was sweet Italian sausage, perhaps a quarter to third compared to the crab meat, to add a little sweet especially with the Old Bay and Worcestershire. (I mix sweet and hot Italian in my chili.)
Have any of you done crab cakes with sausage or second protein?
As far as the crab meat … reading lump is the best for crab cakes. Anyone have success with other types?
by HouseBowlrz
13 Comments
No no no. Sausage will overpower your crab. The crab is meant to speak for itself. You done scandalized this here Southern crab cake lover. You can make a remolaude sauce to go with it, you can do hush puppies and lemon wedges with it, but do NOT add anything that overpowers the star of the show!
Lump is best, and IMO, the only thing the recipe is missing is a dash of Tabasco sauce.
How do these turn out in the slow cooker? Usually, crab cakes are fried/broiled/baked, and I think cooking them in a slow cooker would not produce a good end result at all.
You can make them with special but they are not as good as when you use lump.
We usually did burgers and hotdogs when we had crabs. I can’t really think of another protein that wouldn’t be expensive, steak is usually like a surf and turf deal. I wouldn’t do sausage unless you were doing like a seafood boil.
If you wanted to have a crab dish but still do another protein like sausage I’d feature that and then scale back the crab to like crab balls or crab dip.
Tartar sauce, remoulade, or roasted red pepper aioli. I suppose a little lettuce or arugula if you want, but I don’t know why you’d add anything else to diminish the crab. If you want to add sausage, save your money and make fish cakes with tilapia or something instead of wasting crab.
I’m also not sure of the benefit of using the slow cooker. Put your sliders on a cookie sheet and bake/broil. Super easy and much faster, in the slow cooker I’d think they would come out soggy.
Lump is good, my favorite is a mixture of jumbo lump and backfin. You can also reduce the breadcrumbs and mayo in the recipe by half, way too much filler
Thinly sliced watermelon with a few leaves of cilantro
Crab has a fairly delicate flavor, which I can’t imagine burying underneath another protein, unless it was something similar like shrimp or maybe scallops. Leave that poor crab alone!
The ingredients look fine, there’s lots of variations. I’ve never done them with pure lump, I’ve always just used what’s left over from what we’ve eaten. But cooking crabcakes for 2 hours in a crockpot is something that will get you arrested in MD. Just fry them.
If you are hell bent of adding sausage to a crab cake then just get the lowest quality crab you can find, claw. If you intend on doing this in a crock pot then just get the lowest quality crab meat you can find, claw meat.
*I’m sorry, a crab cake should never be cooked in a crock pot unless you have no other means of cooking them.*
If you really want to add another protein use fish or shrimp, both should be precooked.
If you want a good crab cake follow the recipe and fry them stove top in a pan with some butter or in an oven at 450 for 12-14 minutes.
If you decide to go the pan/oven route get jumbo lump if you can find it, lump would be the second choice.
People in Maryland are laughing at you going no Way
Wow … great discussion !! Appreciate all the comments.
I’m vaguely remembering seeing a recipe for crab and sausage balls some time ago which is what gave me the idea; clearly, the sausage needs to be saved for the chili or farm beans: this is about the crab, the whole crab, and nothing but the crab.
I am making these during family reunion week in Michigan and need to do them prior to transit (few minutes across town). I could drop them on a grill at the venue (house) on arrival but forget doing anything in the kitchen (bake/broil). I like the crock pot for a “set it and forget it” approach as well as helping to keep it warm on arrival.
I will keep at it …
Thanks, folks !!
I routinely chop up a handful of shrimp to mix in with crab.
No extra proteins on a crab cake. I want to taste crab.
This also seems like a crockpot in search of a recipe and not something that benefits from a slow cooker in any way. I wouldn’t make this in a slow cooker just like I wouldn’t make a grilled cheese in a slow cooker.
Form the crab cakes and pan fry. It’ll be done in 30 minutes instead of 3 hours.
I’d serve them with a remoulade, some arugula and a slice of roma tomato.
Why would you cook crab cakes in a crockpot?