A Crab Cake for Any Menu

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1 A Crab Cake for Any Menu There s simply no reason not to menu a crab cake, thanks to a budget-friendly variety of high-flavor, economical crab meat grades. By Dennis Gavagan Corporate Executive Chef Phillips Foods 24 SYSCO TODAY Fall 2007

2 Seafood mentions (including fish and shellfish) on menus at the 200 largest restaurant chains in America increased 47 percent over the past five years, according to Wheaton, IL based menu-database company Food Beat. But did you know that crab is the second-most frequently mentioned shellfish on those menus? And that more than half of the chains that menu crab serve it as a crab cake in appetizer, entrée and sandwich applications? Given the lower menu prices that chains can comfortably charge, many of those crab cakes are made with crab meat other than the premium jumbo lump grade. This opportunity isn t confined to chains an independent operator can create and serve a delicious signature crab cake profitably and without skimping on quality. When grades other than jumbo lump are sourced for quality and used right, crab cakes can be a win for your patrons and your profit margins. The sample prices below are based on market prices at the time of writing; they should be considered a good representation of relative cost. Backfin. Backfin is a blend of broken pieces of jumbo lump and special-grade crab meat, yielding a delectably flaky consistency at a lower cost. If you make your crab cake exclusively with backfin and it consists of 65 percent crab meat, a 4-ounce cake will be $2.44 of your plate cost. Special. Often considered the most versatile grade for the widest range of recipes, special crab meat consists of the smaller flakes of white meat from the body of the crab. It has the same bright-white color and delicate flavor as backfin and jumbo lump, but costs less by weight. A 4-ounce crab cake consisting of 65 percent crab meat all special grade will be $2.01 of your plate cost. Claw. Picked from the swimming fins of the crab, claw meat is a dark meat with a sweeter flavor profile and denser, firmer texture. With a cost of only $1.53 for a 4-ounce cake prepared with 65 percent crab meat, claw allows any operation, no matter the size of the average check, to serve one of Americans favorite dishes. There s no reason not to blend these different grades of crab meat. You can experiment with blending different crab meat grades; the white meat of backfin lends itself to delicate sauces, whereas the dark meat of claw can hold up to more intense and vigorous flavors. Ideally, a 3-to-1 ratio of white to dark crab meat will give any crab cake concoction a delightfully rich crab flavor. Finally, as with any recipe, the better the ingredients, the better your final product. If you start with premium crab meat, your crab cake is bound to taste delicious! Regional Crab Cake Inspirations Give crab cakes a Southwestern spin by resting a 4-ounce cake atop celeryroot slaw spiked with orange juice; top it with a drizzle of avocado cream and a quenelle of roasted-tomato relish. For Asian inspiration, blend crab meat with fresh grated ginger, cilantro, chopped green onion and lime juice, and plate with a colorful combo of sweet-andsour and Chinese hot-mustard sauces. A lemon-scented crab cake placed atop ratatouille and crowned with fennel salad and garlicky aïoli mayonnaise tastes of sun-splashed Provence in southern France. Fall 2007 SYSCO TODAY 25

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