Maryland Crab Cakes

No other dish represents Maryland's cuisine better than the crab cake - a fishcake consisting of crab meat and ingredients such as mayonnaise, eggs, bread crumbs, milk, and seasonings. The blue crab is considered to be the ideal choice of crab for the cakes. They are usually served on a bun, accompanied by french fries, coleslaw, or macaroni salad. Originally, the dish was first prepared by the Natives, long before the arrival of the settlers. It was one of the first dishes that were adopted by the Chesapeake Bay region settlers. The first recipe, called Baltimore's Crab Cake, was published in 1930. In the 1940s, as the dish gained more popularity, Old Bay seasoning was added to the dish, and crab cakes have remained a staple of Maryland ever since, both for their exceptional taste and the benefit to the local economy.