done when the crab cake registers 145°F in the middle.
Serve very hot with the fresh dill sprinkled on top and the
lemon wedges alongside.
* “If it’s mock crab from the unrefrigerated section of your
supermarket, don’t make crab cakes,” says Douglas.* To cook crabs yourself, only use crabs that are still alive. Fill
the biggest pot you have (preferably a stockpot) with a few
gallons of water, add sliced lemons, bay leaves, and a few
tablespoons salt, and bring to a boil. Drop in the crabs, cover,
and cook for 5 to 10 minutes for blue crabs and for 12 to 20
minutes for Dungeness crabs, until the shells are bright red.
Remove the crabs to the sink and rinse with cold water.* You can use store-bought (I like Hellmann’s) or, if you want to
make your own, Tom Douglas recommends making an olive oil–
based mayo; Bobby Hellen’s recipe would work well here.* The fat really doesn’t matter so much here. Clarified butter is
ideal because you can get it really hot for a nice sear while also
getting the flavor of butter; but regular butter or oil works well
too.* If the crab cakes do fall apart, that means you did something
right, according to Douglas. “I’d rather have chunks of meat
flaking apart than a crab paste,” he explains.