Ingredients:
1 shallot, minced
16 oz backfin blue crab meat
16 oz lump blue crab meat
2 eggs, beaten
2 thin slices sourdough bread, torn into small bits
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon celery seed
2 tablespoons minced fresh dill
1 1/2 tablespoons nonpareil capers

Directions:
Place the crab meat in a large bowl. Whisk together the mustard, mayo, pepper and celery seed. Stir it into the crab without breaking up the lumps of crab meat. Add the remaining ingredients and gently mix in by hand. Cup handfuls of the crab mixture and mold into balls. Cook immediately or refrigerate until ready to cook, up to overnight. Heat about 1/2 inch of oil in a large skillet and fry the crab cakes until golden, flipping once. A large, shallow spoon makes flipping and removing crab cakes from the pan a breeze. Drain on paper towel lined plates before serving.

Tip: if your crab meat is very moist and you are having trouble forming your cakes, add a small sprinkle of bread or cracker crumbs.

Yield: 10-12 crab cakes

My thoughts:

I feel like a bad Baltimorean for making a crabcake that doesn’t involve the revered Old Bay. Is a crab cake made in Baltimore without Old Bay still a crab cake? Or is it an abomination best not spoken of? I’m happy to say that while it is not the crabcake I grew up with, it is still very, very good. Dill is always good with seafood and capers add that salty savory punch that Old Bay normally would. I kept the bread, which I liked but I switched up to sourdough. I know a lot of people like just using bread or cracker crumbs but I grew up using bread (it is common in homemade Baltimore crab cakes) and I like it. All in all, it is a bright, flavorful and rather complex crab cake. I like the leftovers cold the next day for lunch.