<p>All right folks, while I realize that some of you probably abhor canned seafood, I want to prepare a gift basket that includes some high quality (a contradiction in terms?) canned crab meat. Should I just skip right over to Whole Foods Market? What about online? Suggestions please!</p>
<p>Make a hot crab dip.</p>
<pre><code> 11 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 small onion, finely chopped
5 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 (6 ounce) cans crabmeat, drained and flaked
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
1 (1 pound) loaf round, crusty Italian bread
</code></pre>
<p>Directions</p>
<pre><code>Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
In a medium bowl, combine the cream cheese, onion, mayonnaise, crabmeat, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Spread mixture into a 1 quart baking dish.
Bake for 20 minutes in the preheated oven. While the dip is baking, cut a circle in the top of the bread, and scoop out the inside to create a bread bowl. Tear the removed bread into pieces for dipping.
Remove baked crab dip from the oven, and stir well. Spoon the mixture into the hollowed out loaf. Place bread bowl and chunks of bread on a medium baking sheet, and bake for an additional 10 minutes. Serve hot.
</code></pre>
<p>What brand of crab meat in a can do you usually use? I hear Miller’s is good but don’t know if I can buy it in the markets in my area.</p>
<pre><code>I use the brand at Trader Joes. ( This recipe is a throw back from the sixties. C/O my mom.) I just realized that you are not looking for a recipe, but a brand for a gift basket. !!! woooooooooooops
</code></pre>
<p>Yes to Whole Foods.</p>
<p>Notice the picture to the left. 
I’ll try to control myself over the canned part, but at the least be sure to get lump crab and not shredded. </p>
<p>I have used Phillips canned crab meat. But you need to keep it refrigerated so I don’t know how well that would work in a gift basket.</p>
<p>Eyemamom, for fear of being insensitive to your phyla, I can only reply by quoting another source of protein…“Eat Mor Chikin!”</p>
<p>I wish no one outside Maryland would serve crab cakes. Here’s what we can’t do here…grow grapes. Our local wine is horrendous. We should stick to what we do well, leave the grape growing to the west coast. And depending on the tastes of your friends I just can’t imagine canned crab being anything I’d be willing to eat. Phillips sells crab cakes at rest stops now - that’s their quality level. You really want to put in a rest stop novelty in your friends gift basket? 
</p>
<p>I bought canned crab meat one time for a dip…it tasted like tuna fish-Yuck!</p>
<p>I don’t like canned crab meat, but the markets sell fresh crab in containers. Saying that, I have no idea when this gift is meant to be eaten.</p>
<p>As someone allergic to shellfish, I know an increasing number of folks similarly afflicted, so I tend never to give shellfish and items that many are allergic to unless I’m SURE the recipients aren’t allergic. </p>
<p>I’ve bought canned crabmeat to use in dips. I usually just be sure NOT to buy the cheapest - I think you get what you pay for. I have a recipe for a spread that gets slathered on english muffiins halves and broiled - the canned works fine because you don’t want chunks. </p>
<p>Agree w prior statememt that proper canned crabmeat MUST be refrigerated. Just get them canned oysters and call it a day. (I have made excellent crab cakes from REFRIGERATED canned crab meat. I’m a proud Maryland native and direct decendent of the first governor!)</p>
<p>@musicamusica </p>
<p>Thanks for the recipe!!! Sounds delicious!! I WILL be making it this week!!!</p>
<p>Boy, y’all are a tough crowd. LOL. I would hate to be an executive of a canned crab meat company and trapped in a blind alley with you folks!</p>
<p>LOL, LW! Asked a crab cake lover friend about canned crab. The response? “The one and only useful thing to do with a can of crab is to use it as a hockey puck”. Crab cannery CEOs probably avoid running into said friend. ;)</p>
<p>No, you could puncture little holes in the top of the can and use it as bait in your crab pots…my dad always saved the heads and tails of his salmon catch and froze them in blocks.</p>