"crab cakes" news and stories

Two things define the food of Maryland's Chesapeake Bay metropolis: spices and seafood. And the former owes its prominence to the latter -- plentiful crabs that once bred like hard-shelled rabbits in the bay's warm waters. "When they were prevalent, bars here would have steamed crabs as giveaways," explains local food writer Dara Bunjon. "So that people would drink more, they made them that much more spicy." In other words, it seems that the city's core condiment, known as Old Bay Spice, was cooked up as a ruse to raise profits at drinking dens.

Food guru Marguerite Thomas theorizes that the city's history as a port combines with its Southern-tinged psyche to make spice such a staple. "You can go to a crab house and order cracked crabs without Old Bay, but people look at you funny," she chuckles. "Baltimoreans take great pride in it." The difference between restaurants' recipes for crab cakes is usually centered on the seasoning. She also loves the crab cake-esque coddie: "I grew up eating them. I'd go to the fountain and for 11 cents, I got a coddie and a Coke as my after-school snack." Thomas says that coddies were traditionally a Jewish treat, a kosher riff on the crab cake made from cod and potato and served on a saltine with a dab of mustard.

Read our "only in Baltimore" list after the jump...

Green tomatoes. Photo: pink_fish13, Flickr.

• Green tomatoes can become a delicious late-summer soup.
• A look at the food and fine dining of Portland, Maine, as it -- brace yourself -- gears up for frost and winter.
• At the living museum Strawbery Banke in New Hampshire, Rosh Hashana is celebrated 1919-style.
• French Languedoc wines have improved greatly over the last 25 years.
• Michael Pollan writes an op-ed piece about eating and U.S. health care.
• Food editor and developer of products like Cran-Apple juice Sylvia Schur passes away at the age of 92.
• Recipe Redux goes back in time and whips up a Huguenot Torte from 1965.
• The foods that wowed when noted chefs David Kinch, Alexandre Gauthier, Pascal Barbot and Michel Bras got cookin' on Sept. 14.
• The Minimalist makes Thai-style crab cakes.
• The classic tourist spot Tavern on the Green files for bankruptcy -- a look into why it fell.
• Restaurants: Gus & Gabriel Gastropub "fails to achieve even its low aims," Stumptown Coffee Roasters whips up exceptional espresso and Queens' M & T Restaurant offers elegant simplicity and great eats.
• Food Stuff finds purr-worthy knives, a new food processor and apple cake.
• New York's openings and closings and dining calendar.

Muffin Mania has returned -- after doing well in the '80s, Martha Prange has republished her grandmother's muffin cookbook.

A review of the long-awaited new Toronto bagel shop, Bagel World ... although it's more about the babka than the bagels.

Those super-cute mini cows are making waves in Ontario, but restricted from metropolitan Toronto life.

Wild idea: Instead of dieting, just change your eating habits a little. Eat, Drink and Be Gorgeous: A Nutritionist's Guide to Living Well While Living It Up offers that and foodie sex tips too?

Wines: Toasting summer with tasty whites and getting red for fall.

Recipes: Crab cakes.

• Is whipped cream really a "forgotten" ingredient?
• A famous Boston food landmark was destroyed by fire this week.
• The taste-testers at the Globe sample the best and worst store brownie mixes.
• The price of rice has gone up too.
• A new bar has opened in the Back Bay, but it actually has a long history already.
• What is the Wine Buying Horizon?
• Restaurant reviews: Fody's Great American Tavern and Foppiano's.
• This week's recipes: Whitefish Salad, Crab Cakes, Snowy Casserolly, Strawberry-Rhubarb Compote, and Red Velvet Cupcakes.

Crab cakes are a favorite food of many seafood lovers. They are made with crab meat that is bound together with a small amount of filler then fried (or baked) until crisp. There are a huge number of variations on the basic cake, but the most important ingredient is, of course, the crab. Summer is typically considered to be crab season, but thanks to frozen and imported meats, crab cakes are available to most people year-round. The question is not whether you can get them, but whether they are worth getting. The week, the Wall Street Journal's Catalogue critic asked that very question and taste-tested five kinds of mail-order crab cakes.

All the cakes had to be cooked at home before serving and all but one was shipped pre-formed. The top choices were Philips Seafood and Chesapeake Bay Crab Cakes and More, which came in first and second with only the narrowest of margins deciding the winner. Third place was the Cadillac Crab Cake Co., the company that shipped the crab cakes unformed in a "loaf," allowing you to shape them according to your preferences.

The biggest drawback is that not only are the cakes expensive, but shipping is pricey, too, so keep that in mind when you decide you want a crab cake or three in the dead of winter.