Crab cakes are a staple on the East coast and come in many varieties and flavors. Regardless of the recipe, the most important component is the crab. If you are fortunate enough to have access to fresh seafood, it makes the very best crab cake but if not, you can almost always find good quality lump crab meat in the seafood section of your grocery store. It ain't cheap but one pound will suffice for six nice sized crab cakes and a dozen sliders.

But wait! There is more. Which part of the crab do you use? Here is the run down:

• Jumbo lump crab meat is harvested from the crab’s swimmer fin muscles. Why is it so expensive? Well each crab only has to fin muscles so there you go.
• A less expensive option but still a player is lump crab meat. This is the most popular meat used in crab cakes and comes from the body of the crab. It looks very similar to the jumbo lump crab meat but is smaller.
• Backfin sometimes called flake crab meat also comes from the crabs body. It is also combined with some lump crab meat. I used a 50/50 ratio of lump and backfin crab meat as it truly makes the best flaky crab cake.
• Lastly is the claw meat which you just should not use for crab cakes. It simply is not sweet enough to make the grade.

As for the type of crab? Marylanders swear by the blue crab for its buttery flavor and some prefer Dungeness. I personally do not think it makes that much of a difference. The real difference is the freshness of the meat.