Crab Redux

DucCat was only gone for one night. When he returned home, there was still a pound of crab to deal with. "Why not make deviled crab?" he suggested.

While purchasing the fresh crab meat, the vendor also had a hand-lettered sign touting deviled crab cakes. I'd never eaten nor heard of one before, and asked the woman what exactly they were. With a large smile, she listed off several tasty sounding ingredients... at this point, I only remember cayenne, paprika, breadcrumbs, butter, all stuffed back into a crabshell for baking and presentation. DucCat and I glanced at each other with a smile. "We'll take four," he grinned. The woman shook her head, though: they had already sold out.

Since this was a classic dish from my husband's childhood, once home, I pulled out an old, tattered cookbook by the name of "Old Dominion Life Member Cookbook". Amongst the many recipes compiled by home cooks across Virginia, I finally came across an appropriate-sounding deviled crab recipe. There was a little tweaking, including preparing the recipe as crab cakes, instead of baked. Then, that first taste of deviled crab. Pronounced spiciness eased comfortably into the mellow freshness of the crab. Tremendously good stuff, this.

Deviled Crab
from the Old Dominion Life Member Cook Book

2 tablespoons butter
2 1/2 tablespoons flour
1 cup milk
2 cups crab meat
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon Worcestershire
1 cup buttered bread crumbs (or just use plain fresh, if making into cakes)


Melt butter, add flour. Stir in milk slowly to make a sauce. Add remainder of ingredients to crab meat, mix well. Stir into sauce. Put into crab shells; sprinkle buttered crumbs on top. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes.

s'kat's notes: I posted the spices as tweaked, but you may want to back off on the cayenne a bit; to me, it was just right. Also, I used fresh breadcrumbs to gently form into cakes, then pan-fried in butter over medium heat until done.