Smoked Crab Cakes Maryland Style Recipe

Here are my crab cakes before....

Yes, it can be done, you can smoke up some dynamite crab cakes. You may prepare them the same way, as you normally would, but instead of oven baking or broiling, you will be cooking them covered in your smoker. 

A Real Maryland Crabcake 
 

You can ask 50 people in Maryland and they all have their favorite recipe, or the way their family "curtailed" the recipe growing up.  My wife grew up in Baltimore County, and although her mom used to make the recipe on the back of the Old Bay and she grew up eating them that way, she doesn't make them the same.  Her mom made them in a pan and the Old Bay recipe tells you to use diced bread moistened with milk....

My wife  argues her recipe is best and somehow doesn't use milk or egg, how this is possible she doesn't say.  She does put in  green pepper bits and dill to replace the parsley, where she came up with this I don't know.  I still can't get her recipe out of her....

Growing up a few miles from my wife, still in Baltimore, my house did it differently. My mother  put diced onion in hers, or sometimes a pinch of onion powder, and somehow adapted cilantro instead of parsley.  She bakes hers.   My brother uses more eggs than is called for and likes to pan fry his.   We all argue over what is good and what isn't, but the truth is they all taste good if cooked properly.

Mother's Federal Hill Crabcakes, one of my top hangout spots

Of course when I go out to eat, no one tastes like mine, but I can eat several places and like their cakes.  My recipe is CLOSE to the original Old Bay Crab Cakes recipe, but I sometimes use crushed crackers instead of the diced bread and try not to use a lot of filler anyhow, so there you have it.

Here are my cakes after. I covered them most of the time and only let the smoke in towards the end.

The Verdict on Smoked Cakes

If you want to know the truth about the smoked cakes? I hated them. My cakes came out with too much of a woodsy flavor and being a Baltimore born and bred fellow, I am partial to the broiled cakes without this flavor burst. As you know I have no issues smoking pork barbecue or beef,   a nice porterhouse steak, heck, I've even smoked blue point oysters, but in my opinion, I have to say NO to the cakes. Of course, if you aren't from Baltimore, you may not know what you are missing so this may taste delicious to you.


Recipes for your Crab Cakes

If I do it again I will follow the recipe courtesy of  Pierpoint Restaurant, even down to how to smoke them.    I think their recipe would be better as I'd change up my hard wood to more fruit woods.

TIP: I did keep them covered 90% of the time, and only let the flavor seep in the last few minutes.



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