This crab salad with lemongrass and mint pays homage to Thailand, where the blue crab is caught and canned. It showcases the beautiful white jumbo lump crab meat.

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November 2007

Product Reviews / Main Nibbles / Fish, Seafood & Caviar

Miller’s Select Premium Crabmeat

Jumbo Lump, Lump, White & Claw Meat From The Blue Crab

CAPSULE REPORT: If you’ve ever spent big money on a can of crab meat, only to be disappointed by the mediocre flavor and the pieces of shell—we feel your pain. We’ve thrown out more than a few such cans. That’s why we were so excited when NIBBLE contributor Barbara Penny Angelakis discovered Miller’s Select, premium wild catch crab meat. In addition, we’ve developed a separate article comparing crab meat grades and a “crab glossary,” to explain the different types of crabs.

Whether you are on a quest for the perfect crab cake or your diet enables you to luxuriate with crab cocktails, it stands to reason that the quality of your experience is based on the quality of the crab meat. Crab meat is not an inexpensive ingredient to “experiment” with, and most stores generally carry just one brand. You’d assume that your fishmonger or specialty food store carries the best—but after years of trying brand after brand, I found that bad assumption.

One day, after a particularly memorable crab cake at Tavern On The Green restaurant in New York City, I was so impressed by the quality of crab used in their cakes that I determined to learn more about processed crab meat in the hope I could duplicate, in my own kitchen, Chef Brian Young’s simple and yet simply divine recipe (below).

The hunt begins! I sampled products from six different purveyors, but stopped dead in my tracks when I tasted the crab meat from Sea Fare Foods’ Miller’s Select brand. Here were the most delicious, fresh-tasting, solid chunks of crabs I ever tasted and…they came out of a can.* While Miller’s Select claims to be the premium wild-catch blue clawed crab meat available in the marketplace, and we must concur, at least based on our sampling.

*Editor’s Note: Most crab meat is canned used in recipes is canned. Picking the meat from the shells is extremely labor-intensive, and most kitchens don’t have the staff to do the work. In addition, high-quality canned crab meat provides the opportunity to use crab meat from species that are not available locally.

Bill Miller, an engineer by training, left his home in Kansas City in 1964 to work on construction projects in Thailand. He fell in love with the land, its people, and the abundant blue clawed swimming crab that is renowned for its delicious meat. He brought it back to the U.S., where friends, naturally, asked for more. Voilà: Miller’s Select was born.

Fresh Canned Versus Shelf-Stable. The two key components in top-quality picked crab meat  are absolute freshness of the harvested crabs and meticulous attention to picking, so the crab meat remains in the largest possible pieces and with the  fewest possible pieces of shell. Toward this end, the finest picked crab has traditionally been a perishable, refrigerated product. Although pasteurized domestic and imported crab meat of  adequate quality is commonly available, it is rare to find gourmet-quality crab meat in a shelf-stable can (a non-perishable product that does not require refrigeration). In this regard, shelf-stable Miller's Select is in a class of its own.   Take a look at the different grades of crab meat: Jumbo Lump, Lump (Backfin), White and Claw, and how you should use each grade.

Jumbo lump crab meat makes a beautiful presentation in cocktails and crab cakes.

Creating The Best Canned Crab. In order to distribute this delicate product safely and with its sweet, succulent flavors intact, Bill Miller put all of his engineering skill into devising optimal harvesting, processing, packaging and shipping methods. An environmentalist, he insisted on developing techniques consistent with sound ecological and sustainable farming procedures—before being “green” was fashionable.

• Miller’s Select has been working with the same Thai fishermen and cannery staff for years. Children often accompany their parents or grandparents to learn sustainable crabbing techniques and the importance of returning undersize crabs to their habitat. Crabs with a carapace width less than the minimum established by the state of Virginia, five inches, are released back into the sea.
• You’ll notice that Miller’s Select is packed in small cans, only 6.5 ounces, not the larger cans that some brands use. This is what makes the crab better: during the pasteurization process that makes the meat shelf-stable, heat is able to penetrate to the center more quickly. This shorter process time means there is less disruption at the cellular level, and the natural flavor of fresh crab is protected. The use of bleaches, whiteners, and artificial flavor enhancers is unnecessary. The only other ingredient in the can besides crab is citric acid, a natural preservative that achieves pH balance.

Tavern On The Green Crab Cake Recipe

This recipe is courtesy of Chef Bryan Young of New York City’s Tavern On The Green restaurant.

Ingredients 1 pound Jonah* crab meat 1 pound lump crab meat 1 scallion, diced ½ egg, stirred with a fork in a cup 1-1/3 cups mayonnaise 2-¼ teaspoons Old Bay Seasoning 1 cup dried unseasoned bread crumbs or panko bread crumbs 2-1/2 tablespoons clarified butter Tartar sauce† Greens, chives, dill, lemon wedges and/or tomato slices for garnish Cole slaw as a side †For great flavor, try the tartar sauce and seasoned mayonnaise from The Ojai Cook.

Crab cakes are delicious by themselves, but the right garnish—snipped gives, fresh dill, baby lettuces—is the crowning glory. Photo by Kelly Cline | IST.

*Jonah crab and rock crab (a.k.a. peekytoe crab) are two species that have become available to restaurant chefs in recent years, but are not necessarily available in consumer markets. In a crab cake, they help to reduce the cost of lump crab meat while still providing delicious flavor. Toward this end, you can substitute Miller Select’s Special White crab meat.

Preparation

1. Gently mix crab meat, scallion, egg, mayonnaise and Old Bay Seasoning in a bowl. Form crab cakes by hand, to approximately three inches in diameter, and set aside.
2. Spread bread crumbs or panko on a nonstick surface and lightly dab cakes in the crumbs to cover.
3. Clarify butter by melting in a very small sauce pan. Skim off the milk solids that float to top. Then pour butter into sauté pan and reheat. (NOTE: You can purchase clarified butter in an specialty food store, or ghee (the Indian word for clarified butter) in an Indian food market.
4. Place crab cakes in pan and cook for six minutes on each side.
5. Put two crab cakes on a plate garnished with tartare sauce and cole slaw. Add some green garnishes and/or slices of tomato for color. Serve with a lemon wedge.

See more crab recipes, compliments of Miller’s Select, and for a delicious book of crab recipes, read Crab by Andrea Froncillo and Jennifer Jeffrey.

Miller’s Select offers gift packages that will make any recipient the very opposite of crabby.

Shop online at SeaFareFoods.com

Or telephone 1.888.429.2722

Prices and availability are verified at publication but are subject to change. Shipping is additional.     

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