Crab Cakes a la Louise
Louise Eleanor (Moore) Morris, born August 25, 1919, and her husband, Don, retired in St. Michaels, MD in 1975. They became enthusiastic ‘chicken neckers’ (someone from ‘away’ who moves to the Eastern Shore) with 2 crab traps and a ‘keeper box’ for which they soon built a lid after discovering a Great Blue Heron with its head in the box. Every year Louise picked and prepared dozens of crab cakes which she froze until family and/or friends stopped by. Keeping with tradition, Louise’s daughter, Ellyn, and her husband, John, toss their two crab traps off their dock on Churn Creek in mid-August to catch crabs. And yep, after 22 years on the Eastern Shore, the local sheriff (a more pleasant sheriff than the one in Devon County, Ellyn adds) still calls them ‘chicken neckers.’ John and Ellyn are proudly and deeply involved in local environmental efforts to keep the Chesapeake Bay and its estuaries clean and healthy.
Ingredients
Ingredients
1 lb crab meat, about 10 legal or 4 jumbo Maryland blue crab, well-picked
1 egg
2 tbsp mayonnaise
1 heaping tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp parsley flakes
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp Old Bay
3 heaping tbsp bread crumbs
Directions
1. Slightly beat egg, breadcrumbs and all ingredients in bowl until crumbs are moistened
2. Add crab meat and mix lightly. For large cakes, divide into fourths and shape. For
smaller cakes, use 1/3 cup measure.
3. Fry in hot oil or bacon grease. (Ellyn highly recommends using bacon grease as it is
the key secret ingredient)
