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by Manos Angelakis
Crab Cake and Wine Pairing
Pairing food and wine is always a challenge, especially if the food’s taste is either too strong or too mild, the last being the case with having crab cakes.
We are passionate about crab cakes. Normally, we make our own handmade crab cakes, most recently based on the recipe Chef Brian Young, of Tavern on the Green, was kind enough to provide (see recipe on Cook’s Corner/Crab Cakes). We recently though received crab cake samples to try from The Crab Ladies (9129 Doctor Perry Road, Ijamsville, MD 21754, phone 301.682-8080).
Four styles of frozen crab cakes were enclosed in the package. Original Jumbo Lump, Gluten-free Jumbo Lump, Artichoke/Three Cheese Jumbo Lump, and Bacon and Gruyere Jumbo Lump. Cooking instructions were included in the enclosed literature. I have to admit that these frozen crab cakes tasted almost as good as fresh made ones.
The Original style was very mild, with just enough breading to bind the lump crab meat together. The Artichoke/Three Cheese was interesting, and the Bacon and Gruyere was unusual - a pronounced bacon taste that thankfully did not overpower the taste of the crab meat. The only one we did not really care about was the Gluten-free.
But, back to the wine pairing dilemma. The Original’s taste was very mild, so we needed a wine that did not overpower the crab meat taste. The Bacon and Gruyere was slightly on the smoky side. The Artichoke and Three Cheese was neutral, with the cheese balancing the crab meat.
We decided to try two wine styles. Dry Rieslings from Germany and Sauvignon Blancs from South America. All these are dry or slightly off-dry, white, aromatic wines.
The Gluten-free sample worked well with all the wines, though we did not particularly care for the texture of the crab cake.
Our first wine was the 2006 Dr. H. Thanisch Classic Riesling, a vinified to dryness wine from a famous producer in the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer area, well known for their sweeter noble wines especially the Auslese and Trockenbeerenauslese. It worked great with the Original and the Artichoke/Three Cheese samples but was just too mild for the Bacon and Gruyere. Our second Riesling, the 2004 Royal Rheingau Riesling, a wine blend produced by three Rheingau estates was much more suitable to the Bacon and Gruyere, the wine’s aroma meshed harmoniously with the smokiness of the crab cake, but was also good with the other samples.
We also tasted two Chilean Sauvignon Blanc and a Torontes from Argentina against the crab cakes. Gran Araucano 2006 and Montes 2007, both Sauvignon Blanc from Chile were nicely aromatic, dry and worked well with all three crab cakes; the young Montes was a bit too aromatic for the Bacon and Gruyere but was a perfect pairing with the other two. The Gran Araucano was more reserved so it matched well all three samples. The 2006 Santa Julia Torontes from Mendoza, Argentina, was also not as aromatic as the Sauvignon Blancs and therefore paired with the three crab cake samples quite well. It was the lightness of the body and the slight spiciness of the wine that made it very attractive for the pairing.
So, if you are as passionate for your crab cakes as we are, above are five wines to start your pairing experimentation.
© November 2007 LuxuryWeb Magazine. All rights reserved.
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