Servings: 8 cakes

1 lb. crabmeat (finely minced) (If using fresh crab, be sure you've picked out all of the shell.) 1 lb. crabmeat (finely minced) (If using fresh crab, be sure you've picked out all of the shell.)
white bread white bread
1 pt. milk 1 pt. milk
½ c. flour ½ c. flour
½ c. butter ½ c. butter
¼ tsp. salt ¼ tsp. salt
½ tsp. black pepper ½ tsp. black pepper
cayenne cayenne
nutmeg nutmeg
parsley flakes parsley flakes
celery salt celery salt
1 egg 1 egg
fat fat
water water

Remove crust from 4 slices of bread & tear into small chunks.
Crumble more bread into enough crumbs to coat 8 large crab cakes, twice. Put these crumbs into a pie pan or other shallow, lipped plated.
Beat egg & a little water. in a separate, similar plate with a fork.
Melt butter in saucepan; then stir in milk & flour.
Cook, stirring constantly, till heavy white sauce is formed; then season to taste with salt, pepper, cayenne, nutmeg, parsley, & celery salt.
Thoroughly blend together crab, bread chunks, & sauce.
Cool crab mixture thoroughly.
Heat fat.
Form crab mixture into 8 cakes.
Dip each cake into breadcrumbs, coating both sides. Dip both sides into egg; then again into breadcrumbs.
Fry till nicely brown on both sides.
Serve piping hot.

If you want to be safe with sauce, make it in top of double-boiler.  If you want to be safe with sauce, make it in top of double-boiler.
SOURCE: Donegal Cookbook (1971 ed.) (The cookbook was published on the 250th anniversary of Donegal Presbyterian Church, Mt. Joy, Pennsylvania, in the heart of Pennsylvania's Amish/Pennsylvania Dutch Country. The inscription in my copy indicates that Polly gave it to Hazel in January, 1972. Hazel would have been Hazel Brown, Hubby's maternal step-grandmother. She and her friend Polly [Hubby can't remember Polly's last name] lived in Carlsbad, New Mexico in the 1960s and '70s. There is no family history tying Hazel to Amish or Pennsylvania Dutch country.)  SOURCE: Donegal Cookbook (1971 ed.) (The cookbook was published on the 250th anniversary of Donegal Presbyterian Church, Mt. Joy, Pennsylvania, in the heart of Pennsylvania's Amish/Pennsylvania Dutch Country. The inscription in my copy indicates that Polly gave it to Hazel in January, 1972. Hazel would have been Hazel Brown, Hubby's maternal step-grandmother. She and her friend Polly [Hubby can't remember Polly's last name] lived in Carlsbad, New Mexico in the 1960s and '70s. There is no family history tying Hazel to Amish or Pennsylvania Dutch country.)