Crab Cakes

Smoky onion remoulade is a terrific accompaniment to these crab-studded cakes from Marc Forgione at American Cut in Manhattan. At the restaurant, he smokes onions, but the sauce is also great made with charred onions and seasoned with smoked salt.

Lump crabmeat is mixed with only enough bread crumbs and mayonnaise to hold it together, then coated with more crumbs and fried to a golden brown. A mixture of sour cream and horseradish provides lively accompaniment.

These luscious crab cakes are proportionally perfect: heavy on glorious hunks of crab, light on bread crumbs. And instead of frying the cakes, Baltimore chef Spike Gjerde of Woodberry Kitchen serves them "brold" (Baltimorese for "broiled," he says). "I can't overemphasize how important it is to use fresh, carefully processed meat from blue crabs," he adds.

Though chef Hans Rockenwagner makes homemade mayonnaise for this recipe; you can substitute 1 1/4 cups of jarred mayonnaise blended with 1 tablespoon of minced lemongrass, from the tender white bulb, and 1 teaspoon of finely grated ginger; let sit for 30 minutes.

Team these with homemade slaw, a warm potato salad and some fruit salad, and watch your family go to it like a swarm of locusts. Guaranteed.--Andrew Zimmern

The shiitake crab cakes add a touch of flavor to this sweet corn soup.

When making crab cakes, it's customary to keep the crabmeat in chunks. Here, it's best to break up some of the meat to keep the crisp patties together.

Growing up in Silver Spring, Maryland, cooking-club member DeeAnn Budney attended all-day Chesapeake blue crab feasts organized by the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Now that she lives on the West Coast, she makes these fantastically spicy crab cakes with sweet Dungeness crab meat, but either kind works.

Between the flavorful crab cakes, the intense curry mayonnaise and the delightful apple salad, your palate will surely be satisfied.

These amazing, light and simple crab cakes are bound with fish, not cracker crumbs, for a deep seafood flavor.

Instead of bread crumbs, chef Stephanie Sokolove uses crushed pretzels to bind and crust her chunky crab cakes. She sometimes bakes them in her outdoor oven.