Tyler Florence's 'Secret to the Ultimate Crab Cake'

Simple, elegant, and packed with sweet crab meat, this crab cake recipe from Food Network chef Tyler Florence is the only one you’ll turn to for this classic dish. 

Florence reveals what makes the perfect, hefty, moist crab cake, and it’s so simple, it’s practically obvious.

Tyler Florence’s crab cakes include a bold-flavored aioli on the side

The Food Network chef’s ultimate crab cakes call for olive oil, onion, garlic cloves, jumbo lump crabmeat, fresh bread crumbs, mayonnaise, an egg white, the juice of half a lime, freshly chopped cilantro leaves, salt, and pepper.

Since no crab cake is complete without a side sauce, Florence includes a Garlic Aioli with Celery Root for which you’ll need garlic, sour cream, mayonnaise, celery seed, one juiced lemon, extra-virgin olive oil, shredded celery root, and freshly chopped chives.

The chef’s secrets to making the ultimate crab cake

In his 2006 cookbook Tyler’s Ultimate: Brilliant Simple Food to Make Any Time, Florence explains that his “secret to the ultimate crab cake” has two steps.

Firstly, The Great Food Truck Race host writes, it’s all about avoiding canned, processed ingredients.

“I use only fresh, jumbo lump crabmeat, which gives the cake a hefty bulk so when you put your fork through it, you pull out pure hunks of delicious crab, not breading,” Florence writes. 

And secondly, he reveals that using just the right kind of bread crumbs is very important. Dried, canned bread crumbs won’t work in this recipe, the chef says: “I use soft, fresh white bread crumbs. Dry bread crumbs soak up all the moisture in the crab and leave the cakes dense, heavy, and dry. Fresh bread crumbs give the mixture just enough structure to make the cakes easy to flip, and they hold in moisture so the cakes are as light as a cloud.”

Get the complete recipe and reviews on Food Network’s site.

Home cooks said Florence’s crab cakes were restaurant quality

Some reviewers reported their cakes fell apart after cooking. One home cook wrote, “This is not a recipe for Maryland crab cakes; too much filler and no Old Bay Spice.” And another reviewer added, “This was a classic recipe where the magic they work on the show is not easily duplicated in the home.”

Still, most home cooks leaving reviews on Food Network’s site loved Florence’s take on the beloved seafood entree.

“Tyler called these the Ultimate Crab cakes, and they were! … For years, my grandmother’s recipe was the tried and true standard, but even she admitted that this recipe was better, and it floored everyone. … Rave reviews from a family that knows its seafood, believe me,” one home cook shared.

Another fan of the recipe added, “Tyler you taught a Maryland girl how to make the perfect crab cake – my husband said it was the best he ever had! The use of the fresh bread crumbs made all the difference in the world!”

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