Brown Butter Crab Salad With Fried Bread
February 17th, 2025An Indulgent, Effortless Afternoon Snack
This delicious and quick recipe is inspired by Gabrielle Hamilton’s recipe for brown butter crab toast from The New York Times. While the original recipe involves making a homemade aioli, this version is simplified with store bought mayonnaise. Browning the butter and slowly emulsifying it into the mayo makes this crab salad full of nutty caramelized flavor that works really well with the sweet crab and pop of tang from the lemon juice. Serve it for lunch over warm, crusty bread or with a crudite platter for a quick and impressive seafood appetizer.
Note: Using a pre-picked pack of Dungeness Crab Meat makes ingredient prep simple and fast. If you have Snap & Eat Dungeness Crab in your kitchen though, you can use that instead, and aim to pick about 1 cup of crab meat to use for this recipe.
Brown Butter Crab Salad and Fried Bread
By Wild Alaskan Company
Prep time
5 minutes
Cook Time
6 minutes
Total time
15 minutes
Yield
2 servings
Ingredients
- 1 (6 oz.) package crab meat
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
- 3 tablespoons mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 2 thick slices of sourdough bread
- Small handful of tender herbs (dill, chives, and/or parsley), finely chopped
Instructions
1. To make the crab salad: Heat 3 tablespoons butter in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add butter and swirl the pan until foaming subsides, then cook until the butter smells nutty and the specks at the bottom of the pan are golden brown, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and let sit for 3 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, add mayonnaise to a medium bowl. When butter has cooled slightly, very slowly drizzle the browned butter into the mayo while constantly whisking. Make sure to scrape all of the brown bits into the bowl.
3. Whisk in the lemon juice, salt and pepper. Gently fold in the crab meat. Taste and adjust seasoning. Cover and chill in the fridge until ready to use.
4. To make the fried bread: Melt remaining 2 tablespoons butter in the same skillet you used earlier over medium heat. Add the slices of bread and fry until golden on both sides, 4 minutes total.
5. To serve, divide crab salad between toasts, slice in half on a diagonal. Top with chopped herbs, black pepper, flaky salt and a squeeze of lemon.
Consuming raw or undercooked meats, poultry, seafood, shellfish, or eggs may increase your risk of food-borne illness, especially if you have a certain medical condition. The FDA recommends an internal temperature of 145°F for cooked fish.
