Crab Rolls Recipe - How to Make Crab Rolls | Hank Shaw (2024)

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I grew up with lobster rolls. After all, my mom is from Ipswitch, Massachusetts, pretty much the epicenter of Lobster Roll Nation. I’d never heard of crab rolls.

Then, one day, I wandered into Obrycki’s in search of food during a layover in Baltimore-Washington airport. Crab rolls were on the menu. OK, I’ll bite. I ordered them.

“Good call,” the bartender said. They’re my favorite. Sure they are. Everything’s your favorite when you’re the bartender. I expected a glob of mayo-based crab salad in a tired hot dog bun.

An Obrycki’s crab roll is not that. Yes, there’s mayonnaise, and yes there is a bit of celery, and the obligatory Old Bay seasoning — I think it’s the law to include it with any crab dish within 150 miles of the Chesapeake Bay — but this sandwich (can you call something on a hot dog bun a sandwich?) was all about the crab.

While not as minimalist as a New England lobster roll, which can literally be buttered lobster in a split-top roll, this crab roll is full of crab with only the Old Bay-lemon-mayo to tie it all together. Celery is a minor addition entirely for texture, not a filler.

I wrote notes about this amazing lunch on a napkin, determined to reverse engineer it at home.

This is what I came up with. While probably not the exact Obrycki’s crab roll, it’s close, and really good. I used Dungeness crab because that’s what I had, but any crab will do. Obviously they use blue crab in the Chesapeake.

Oh, and good luck finding split top rolls outside of New England, and that’s one thing I won’t buy online. Just use a good quality hot dog bun, or something else that makes you happy. I won’t come to your house to beat you up if you used, say, a kaiser roll or even a tortilla.

Just make these crab rolls. They are easy to put together, cool on a hot summer day, and absolutely memorable.