I have seen a crab cake recipe that uses a mousse made from scallops that acts as a binder. Somewhere in the great mess of collected recipes, it should be there. The pandemic has been helpful in gleaning the mess. When I find it, I’ll put it out there. And of course, it is made with fresh Dungeness.
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I have seen similar recipes using pollock (which I really like - especially for fish and chips). Looking forward to your recipe(s), where I would replace the scallops with pollock.
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I have done this with both shrimp and scallops and it works very well to keep crabcakes together, but IMO the other shellfish disguise the delicate flavor and texture of crab. Even as a dedicated low-carber, I prefer to use breadcrumbs or cracker meal in crab cakes to make sure the crab flavor dominates. I made a fantastic batch over the holidays last year - one ounce of crushed oyster crackers to a pound of crab (plus an egg and some mayo) provided plenty of binding power.
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Yeah, there’s no getting around the fact that crab is expensive, so things made with it tend to be a treat. Better to wait for a special occasion than try to make do with lousy canned crab. However, for rangoons there’s no reason to even use crab 
. Just use surimi. It really makes very little difference.
You need crab bodies for a decent bisque.
Crab cakes are much better with premium stuff, particularly for people like me who don’t tend to love crab cakes because they taste very little of crab due to all the seasonings. Even if you like the standard crab cake with filler and Old Bay, the canned stuff is just really bad.
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for all things good, this is where you start for crab dishes:
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Hmmm. Doesn’t look like a dungie.
Not about canned crab!
They don’t look great but they taste amazing.
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Definitely keeping the crab flavor front and center is key. IMO, Dungeness is perfect for hot crab sandwiches, cocktails and MY quiche, but I can see where the other types might hold up in crab cakes. Gosh, I wish I had some right now, as I recover from surgery. 
I am fortunate to be able to splurge on peekytoe crab, which is handpicked and freezes well. It is not pasteurized. I think the biggest thing I realized after I found this product is how much pasteurizing really takes away from the flavor of crab, even in the better canned varieties. So I buy a few pounds when it is in stock and then use it sparingly. It does make superlative crab cakes.
if you catch a live crab, and steam it, it’s “pasteurized”
crab in a can suffers not from being ‘pasteurized’ - but from being in a can for months and months…
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^ Amazing stuff, that. How long does it keep well for you in the freezer?
Amanda,
What recipe do you use?
Thanks
I’ve kept it for up to a year, but I also store it at the back of the freezer so it is less likely to be impacted than the items near the door. It comes in 8 oz. containers, so I can easily just take out what I need as I go.
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https://www.stonewallkitchen.com/legal-sea-foods-crab-cakes-R499.html
You can use whatever mayo floats your boat in the recipe, rather than the branded one called for. I also tend to skip the “seafood seasoning” and use a little paprika, cayenne, and Mrs. Dash’s Onion Seasoning. I like the oven baked method the recipe uses a lot.
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Well I’ll have 2 new things to try.
Fresh crab as opposed to canned
And baked instead of fried.
Thanks Amanda !
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This sounds like a challenge! 
I LOVE crab - my favorite food in the whole world. I tried US tinned varieties decades ago and was thoroughly disappointed. The Phillips lump crab meat that comes in the plastic tub, and usually in the refrigerated section, is marginally better, but still lacks the sweetness of fresh crab. If you had to choose, go with the Phillips (they are available at my local Costcos).
I usually buy fresh crab myself. I have an aversion to most tinned foods I’ve tried in the US. Foods and drinks pick up a slightly metallic taste that is off-putting for me. Unless the food is intended to be brined, the only tinned seafoods foods I’ve enjoyed are conservas from Spain or Portugual and the specialty canned “gift” foods in Japan. I brought home 2-3 cans of “gift” crab and that was incredible, but you can’t source this outside of Japan.
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Serious Eats has an opinion on why canned crab sucks (per J. Kenji Lopez-Alt):
The vast majority out there are made with canned, pasteurized crab meat which instantly takes them out of “sweet and succulent” territory and into “fishy and please god take that smell away from me” land.
There’s “cooked” and then there is “cooked to within an inch of its life at too high of a temperature for the protein and then jamming it into a can (more likely, actually, cooking it in the can)”. While nothing beats picking your own, I will take properly cooked and frozen every time over canned. 
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Totally agree with you, in fact I was going to state almost exactly your first paragraph! I too haven’t found any canned crab I like and was going to second the recommend for the Phillips pasteurized crab in the refrigerated section. I’ve made a couple different crab cake recipes with it, with great results. However, if anyone does buy and use it, it’s MUCH better to find a use for the whole container at once. Once open, it doesn’t fare well in the fridge, even for a few days.
I can see it working well in basques, chowders and dips too.
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So what is the deal with frozen? I look at the selection in my small town (several hours from the coast) Safeway and am bewildered. All of it at the seafood counter is cooked, “from previously frozen”. Was it cooked before or after being frozen? And why do I have to buy it after it’s been thawed, sitting on ice in their case for who knows how long?
I’m pretty sure “everything” up here (seafood wise) is/was frozen, so I don’t want to buy it thawed (and very rarely do - at least not without smelling it first).
But opposed to most other seafood, the selection of frozen crab is almost non-existent here, and most of it is a Surimi type fake.
I have even looked at the online alternatives (anywhere from $50-100/lb. - plus shipping!), and it is all pre-cooked! Is there something about freezing fresh, raw crab I don’t know about?
Sorry for the rant… I love crab… and with maybe the exception of abalone, it is probably my favorite seafood, but it has been way too long since I had any that was fresh. I am starting to feel like it is going the way of abalone… unobtainable for the average joe.
Crab is always cooked while still alive, due to the release of toxins when they die. Thus, when being processed, live crabs are cooked, and then flash frozen. When at the fish counter, you can usually always ask for still frozen seafoods. I don’t like buying the thawed stuff either.
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