16 Best Sauces For Crab Cakes

There's no one way to make a crab cake. America's first crab cakes were made by Indigenous peoples, who formed them with fresh crab and cornmeal and fried them in hot bear fat. Today, you'll find different types of crab cakes all over the country, from the blue crab cakes of the Chesapeake Bay to the Dungeness crab cakes of the Pacific Northwest. In other parts of the world, you'll find even more ways to make crab cakes; subtle recipe variations can be found in places like Thailand or Italy.

Just as there are many ways to make a crab cake, there are possibly even more ways to top them. Nothing helps a crab cake sing like a fresh, homemade sauce. But which sauce to choose? Something rich and creamy, or something bright and spicy? The sauce you choose for topping your crab cake can completely change the flavor profile, so be sure and suit the sauce to your meal, the atmosphere, and your taste buds. Here are plenty of suggestions to help plan your menu. 

Tartar sauce may have been named for nomadic Central Asian warriors, but it's become a staple of classic American cooking. No fish fry or weeknight meal of fish sticks would be complete without the creamy combination of mayo and pickles. Of course, it's not just for fried fish. Tartar sauce is a worthy partner for a batch of perfectly seasoned crab cakes. Along with remoulade, it's one of the sauces you're most likely to see served with crab cakes in American restaurants. 

Tartar sauce is somewhat similar to remoulade, but it's stripped down to basic components. You can quickly assemble tartar sauce at home with just a few ingredients (mayonnaise, onions, pickles, and a splash of lemon juice) or follow a tartar sauce recipe until you get the hang of it. Adjust the ingredients to suit your own taste or to bring a different vibe to the table. Try making tartar sauce with Japanese Kewpie mayo for a bit more umami. 

Cocktail sauce, also known as seafood sauce, is much more commonly seen as an accompaniment to shrimp cocktails or big fried shrimp platters, but the tangy sauce is also a fine accompaniment for crab cakes. If you're serving a variety of seafood, cocktail sauce can do double duty, as it works for both crab cakes and shrimp, and for many diners, it's a favorite topping for raw oysters. 

The bright, tangy taste is a welcome flavor for those who don't want their crab cakes smothered in a rich, fatty sauce. The taste is akin to lemony ketchup, so it's a good sauce to offer children, who may be averse to some of the more complex flavors in other toppings. Cocktail sauce is also a good secondary sauce to have on hand if you're serving a more unfamiliar sauce. Non-adventurous eaters deserve toppings, too, and cocktail sauce has just the right amount of zest without going overboard. 

Creamy aioli is often confused for mayonnaise, and while the two are both emulsions, aioli is created using garlic and olive oil. A well-made aioli has a velvety texture that brings added richness to any dish. Its origins may be Mediterranean and French, but there's really no food style that can't incorporate a bit of aioli. Part of the beauty of the sauce is how easily it can transformed with the addition of other ingredients. 

When using aioli for crab cakes, you could stick with the traditional garlic aioli (which is plenty delicious) or dress it up with lemon and fresh herbs (like basil or chives). A bit of roasted red pepper adds both color and flavor to aioli and would enhance crab cakes even further. If you'd like to spice up your crab cakes with some heat, try a sriracha aioli (or a gochujang aioli, or whatever your favorite spicy sauce might be). 

If there are two ingredients that nearly everyone agrees taste great with fish, they'd have to be lemon and dill. Even the simplest grilled seafood dishes are usually seasoned with lemon and dill (and butter, for those who aren't worried about keeping things light). It stands to reason that lemon and dill would also form the base of a sauce that tastes just right when drizzled over a plate of fresh, hot crab cakes. 

Recipes vary from person to person, so choose one that sounds good to you, whether sour cream-based, yogurt-based, or tinged with Dijon mustard or Old Bay seasoning. Lemon dill sauce elevates crab cakes a bit more than the standard tartar sauce, imparting a grassy herbaceousness. It's a good choice when your side dishes are a tad fancier than French fries. Some good pairings for crab cakes with lemon dill sauce include grilled asparagus and herb-infused French potato salad.

Want something a little different from tartar sauce but with a similar creamy texture and tangy taste? Tzatziki is the solution. The yogurt-based Greek sauce (which also makes a mighty good dip for vegetable crudités) is a super topper for a batch of crab cakes, with just the right balance of cool creaminess, citrine tang, and a delicate crunch from the fresh cucumbers. If you're making it yourself, use full-fat Greek-style strained yogurt for the best taste and texture. 

If you'd like your crab cake meal to have a Mediterranean vibe, tzatziki is a simple way to move it in that direction. Consider serving your crab cakes with warm loaves of fresh pita bread, lemony roasted broccoli, and a veggie-studded couscous for a complete meal. Stash away any leftover tzatziki for topping any type of seafood or for use as a dip or even a zesty salad dressing.

If you really want to get outside of the usual crab cake box, choose a topping that will add something unexpected, like a tropical mango salsa. People seem to forget that "salsa" literally means "sauce," so it makes sense that it's good for more things than just dipping your tortilla chips. While any kind of salsa could elevate your crab cakes, mango salsa is particularly tasty with the delicate flavors of crab meat. 

Choose a mango that's not overly ripe, so your salsa won't be too mushy, and add chopped red onion, fresh cilantro, lime juice, and slivers of jalapeno (or a hotter pepper, if you can stand it). The tropical taste really adds an impact to fried crab cakes (or any fried seafood), lifting them up so they don't seem so heavy and greasy. Serve plenty of it on the side — it practically counts as a salad!

Horseradish may be an acquired taste, but those who love a nasal pungency (or the little packets of Arby's Horsey Sauce) will love adding horseradish sauce to their crab cakes. Many remoulade recipes use a dash of horseradish for flavor, so it's not an uncommon pairing for crab cakes. Horseradish sauce simply takes the concept and runs with it. Because the appearance might trick guests into thinking it's a sour cream sauce, be sure and warn them ahead of time. 

For gatherings of larger numbers of people with differing tastes, you might serve horseradish sauce as one of two or more sauces. Those who love it can apply generously, and others may opt for a less zesty crab cake topping. Horseradish sauce comes in bottles if you want to keep things simple, and it can be placed on the table as an option for those who choose it.

You can have the taste of summer, even if you're enjoying your crab cakes in the colder months, by topping them with a jam that's bursting with the sunny flavor of the warmer months. Tomato jam is a wonderful way to preserve the bounty of summer's ripe tomatoes, and the concentrated flavor is a dazzling companion for fresh-cooked crab cakes. If you were prescient enough to make your own tomato jam, pop open a jar and spoon it on with (careful) abandon.

Of course, you can also purchase tomato jam, and there are plenty of trusted brands from which to choose. Tomato jam gives a southern down-home vibe to crab cakes (but it's also reminiscent of Italy). You can enhance that vibe by going all-out with the southern accompaniments, from pickled okra to collard greens, but be forewarned that some Southerners will be looking for the tartar sauce.