Premade Frozen Crab Cakes

Sherry, I don't have a suggestion for you, but would you consider doctoring the bland ones? My grandmother did that with jarred gefilte fish when she wasn't up to making from scratch, and they tasted pretty close to her own.

What would you sprinkle on them? Old bay? Tony’s from New Orleans?

Have never ate gefilte fish, lol.

Gefilte fish, while the word means "stuffed", is fish patties bound with eggs, seasoning, and optionally a little sugar, Sometimes, there's a crumb binding. Not too different kind of a thing. Grandma would add her own seasoning to the liquid they were packed in and heat them briefly, then cool, because they were served cold.

I was thinking you could similarly coat the boughten crab cakes with the flavors you were missing before heating, since I think they're baked before serving. If you fry them, you could dry heat them in a skillet, maybe, to set the spices before frying. Or something. like that. Or even use a food syringe to inject a little something. Just thinking that Publix would be the easy place to get them, if bland is the only issue, and adding a little seasoning might be a lot easier than tracking down another brand.

I have created a recipe for deviled crab, if you are interested in that. It is not a crab cake, and I first had it at Guido's in Galveston when I was a child, and in Texas, it was always served in a crab shell, although that is not necessary. I make it in a casserole dish so that I can easily make multiple servings. I believe it would freeze well.

I do love Maryland crab cakes (which are on the bland side), but I seldom make them.

I prefer salmon cakes and have good recipes for that as well.

Thanks Lars, but I am looking for a premade frozen one.

ETA: My problem is that I only need one or two servings, not several.

Our seafood store makes fabulous crab cakes and I freeze them myself. Would that be a possibility for you? Make a batch and freeze them to cook later? eta: I don't know why it would take all day to make a batch unless you are shelling the crab yourself. Costco here sells fresh crab meat in packages that is perfectly acceptable, if that might be an option, Crab cakes are a breeze to assemble. I use a recipe that uses a little mayo for binder instead of eggs so there is no worry about thorough cooking. You can leave out the cilantro if you don't care for it. I also leave out the salt..crab is plenty salty on its own.

Jacques Pepin’s Crab Cakes

Yield: Serves 4
Ingredients:

½ pound either pasteurized or fresh crabmeat drained and picked clean of shell
1 ¼ cups fresh bread crumbs
2 tablespoons minced scallions
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1 teaspoon minced garlic
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
¼ teaspoon Tabasco
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
⅓ cup sliced almonds
2 to 3 tablespoons peanut or canola oil [I actually used butter for flavor]

Preparation:

To make the crab cakes, put the crabmeat in a bowl and add ⅔cup of the bread crumbs, the scallions, cilantro, garlic, mayonnaise, Tabasco, and salt. Mix lightly, just until the ingredients are well combined.

Put the remaining bread crumbs in the bowl of a food processor with the almonds, and process until the nuts are well chopped and combined with the bread.

Form the crab mixture into 4 patties, then dip each patty into the bread and almond mixture until it is coated on all sides.

Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium hat, and arrange the patties next to one another in the pan, handling them gently because the mixture is soft. Cook until golden brown on both sides and hot through, turning once with a spatula, 3 to 4 minutes per side. The internal temperature of a crab cakes should read 155° on an instant-read thermometer.

Source: I Love Crab Cakes by Tom Douglas

I guess I was not plain about what I neededI have lots of good recipes to make myself, I am from the gulf coast. I just do not want to do it.

I'm also confused that it took all day to make crab cakes. It takes 20 minutes unless you are missing a couple arms.

Jacques has another recipe on YouTube that is under 10 minutes. His recent PBS series, 'Cooking at Home'. Probably 20 minutes start to finish. (too much mayo for my taste)

I like to make mine the night before or early am so they have fridge time to firm up.

I've heard the Costco frozen by Phillips are acceptable. A friend that does not cook likes them. I think they have mini appetizer ones as well. Other groceries across the country have them as well.

If you find crab cakes bland you need better quality lumb crab meat and a different recipe. Crab is delicious right out of the shell.

Emeril's recipe has a bit more zip. I like them with a NewOrleans creole remouelade with lots of lemon.

MINE are not bland, but the purchased ones I tried are. And yes the meal took up a large part of the day. Making not just the cakes, all the sides!

I DO NOT need recipes! I asked if anyone knew of good frozen ones.

I still had to make him something else! All for one crab cake for me with leftover that I do not want. I have the same problem with lasagna and other large dishes. At best it is two servings used out of eight.q

The frozen Phillips were mentioned above, I just finished up a box from Costco and found them reasonable. Not awesome but quite acceptable and certainly convenient. They offer several cooking options; since I hadn’t planned ahead and thawed them, I baked them from frozen. They weren’t close to ready in the prescribed amount of time so I threw them in a pan for a bit to speed things up. This helped crisp them up a bit so it was a win.

Now it's impossible for me to recommend these as better or less bland than a brand haven't tried. Personally my ideal crab cake is all about tasting crab, not loads of filler, herbs and spices. But that's not what you're gonna find in the freezer section.

I've occasionally made my own crab cakes and frozen them. So long as I'm making a batch and can make extra I'll make some for next time. It's usually just two of us so a prep for dinner and one for the freezer is common here.

Other than that... there really isn't a way to make a bland commercially made crab cake not bland. You have to add some sort of seasoning or sauce to the exterior and have that be the flavor. Then it depends on what you like. Old Bay or other seafood seasoning blends are popular for dry spices. There's lots of sauces of any flavor or style you can want.

I've an outlet near me, so I've been able to try a few kinds. The puff mini ones are very not worth it. Too much puff, not much crab. It was Phillips brand. I'd kind of assume their patty version isn't too much better. Gortdons is decent for a generic patty, kind of like their pressed fish. Not great. There were a couple food service ones that came in flat boxes of either blue on white or red on white labling. Patties, those were OK. A couple of more regular grocery style boxes in red and blue, usually on yellow or white- most of those were pretty blah.

Sherry, I totally get it. If you can't find a good frozen one, and if you don't want to freeze your own, and you mentioned not going out, could you occasionally pick up or have delivered a couple of crab cakes, and maybe some fixings, from a favorite Service deli or restaurant, along with something which would please him? Is there any way to scale your recipe to make just a couple? It's actually possible to make a single large portion of lasagna in a gratin dish, too. It's not generally cost effective, buying a single sausage from the butcher, and making a tiny pot of sauce, but freezing your own seems to be off the table (I always have portions of my lasagna in the freezer—it freezes and reheats beautifully), and if so, it might be worth it to you. Or maybe you have a friend or neighbor, or group of them, in the same boat, and one day every week or two, have a trade around, for crab cakes, lasagna, etc.? Just some alternative ideas. I hope you do find a good frozen one!

Why not just eat the crab and forget the stuffing?

Dockside Classics isn't bad, but they're not frozen; IDK if you can freeze them.

I like Marie Callendar, Michael Angelo, and Bertonelli for Italian, single serve size. There are also several Chinese, can't remember the brand. There just doesn't seem to be very good seafood ones, Hubby eats Italian like lasagna, pizza, and spaghetti, It is just cutting it down. for one or two. I use Rao sauce. in the jar. It makes two pizzas, so I use 1/2 jar and freeze the other half.

I will just try what I can find and report back.

I may try making and freezing the crab cakes, but that would do me a year, lol. Of course I do gumbo the same way. One batch in the fall lasts me until spring.

I said recipe, but I just cook them, with what I want, Old Bay, onion, celery, egg, and bread. I do oyster dressing the same way. I grew up cooing seafood just like fried chicken, or pancakes, no recipes.

Ricky, blue crabs are small and you cannot buy live in North Alabama. They are usually made into stuffed crabs, using the shell, crabcakes, or in a casserole like Lars posted.

My grandmother always made a lasagna pan size casserole. She said she didn't have time to fiddle with the shells.

Have you looked at Trader Joe’s? I saw theirs highly rated, but it was from a few years ago and they are notorious for discontinuing products, so they may not be available now.

I looked online at TJ, but they were not listed. I froze four of mine, so we shall see in a week or so.

Do you have Aldi's? I've heard people rave about the ones they sell.

http://www.sometimesfoodie.com/2017/02/maryland-and-boardwalk-style-crab-cakes.html