Recreating Emeril Lagasse's Crabcakes From Taste

Hi everyone, it's Rhoda.

And I'm here for a secret conversation about Chris Morocco.

Once again, we're going

to put Chris's super-taster abilities to the test.

This is Emeril Lagasse's

Crab Cakes with Creole Tartar Sauce.

We're challenging Chris to replicate this exact dish,

with every ingredient, in just one day.

He'll be able to taste it, touch it,

smell it, but at no point will he be allowed

to see this dish.

At the end of the day, we'll come back

to see his final creation.

And I'll be the judge.

[suspenseful music]

It's happened.

It's so funny.

The smell is like, oh, I know exactly what you are,

but I couldn't even begin to say what it is.

This is gonna sound crazy. It smelled like breakfast.

Oh my gosh.

This is, like, not at all what I was expecting.

So, I have like two things that seem to be exactly the same.

It's crispy.

And there seems to be some kind of sauce adhering it

to the plate.

Very garlicky little number there,

like a very garlicky aioli.

So, we've got this fried little unit.

Wow, it's so flavorful.

It seems to be like smoked fish in here.

I feel like there is potato in here.

It just feels like there's like a kind of a potato-y matrix

kind of holding things together.

Okay, well that was a little piece of something.

Maybe garlic, maybe finely diced pickle

or some kind of relish.

Oh.

That's not smoked fish. That's crab.

There is, like, kind of like a smokiness coming

from some kind of element here, though.

It's not like a lot of heat.

There is like some kind of smoky, maybe peppery element.

I think I'm looking at crab cakes with aioli.

There's something that's giving me green vegetal.

I feel like there's gotta be something

kind of binding this, too.

There's a slight gumminess, not bad or anything.

But I mean, I think like there's something additional,

maybe beyond potato, if it is potato.

Could you make like a roux that's like so tight

that you're basically able to mold it and fry it?

And the outside kind of has to be coated

in some sort of bread crumb, maybe an egg coating.

There seems to be like an allium element,

possibly garlic, shallot, maybe.

There's a bit of a distinct pepperiness, too.

It feels like it's either 100% olive oil based,

or at least 50%.

I'm getting lemon, garlic, salt.

Maybe there's a touch of mustard in there.

It doesn't seem to be as stiff as like a mayonnaise.

But it seems to be, I don't know,

all the flavors seem to be in line with aioli,

if that makes sense.

Maybe a pinch of cayenne.

Oh, that has a lot going on there.

I don't know, there's something about like the green pepper,

the fact that, like,

I'm getting like a certain kind of like starchy, you know,

kind of slurry, roux kind of thing happening.

It sort of feels like it's like a little bit of, like,

you know, the sort of like holy trinity of, like,

garlic, green pepper, green chili, some kind of onion.

I'm always wanting to say, like, Emeril

for anything that's like, even like remotely in this world.

Hey, do you remember when Emeril came to One World Trade?

Bam.

All right, get it outta here.

Okay, we're here to make a shopping list.

For the sauce, I'm thinking olive oil, lemon, garlic.

Could it be an aioli that has a little sort of streak

of like a hot sauce in it?

Mustard?

I would err on the side of it being

like an egg yolk bound emulsion.

So, we need some crab, green bell pepper.

I mean, yet another recipe that may

or may not have heavy cream in it.

But, let's say cream and milk.

We're gonna need fine bread crumb.

Was there pickle relish in there?

I'll put it down as a maybe.

I'm leaning on this notion that, like,

there is some kind of roux or other kind of base

that your aromatics are being cooked out in.

And then, maybe there's just enough crab

to just kind of hold it all together.

But then, what are you doing, just chilling that mixture,

kind of scooping, and flattening, and breading?

I mean, I guess like,

could you almost do like a bechamel

and then chill it?

Like, I mean, just point being like

add a little bit of like cream or milk,

and just use that kind of as your binder.

It's kind of antithetical to how I would make a crab cake,

I think, is sort of the problem on this one.

I'm not gonna go so far as to say I feel good about this,

but I mean, that's kinda what I got.

[beep] horn.

[suspenseful music]

My feeling is like, let's just do something

and like focus on having a good time.

We're gonna go with this roux option.

Maybe we'll start with the aromatics

with a lot of butter.

We'll put the flour in there,

cook it out, and then maybe, you know, throw in some cream.

How's that sounding?

So, we're gonna start by cutting some stuff.

And maybe I wasn't like being entirely clear

about what I was talking about with the shallot thing.

It felt like, you know,

you were kind of getting like a squiggle,

like a squiggle of shallot that was in there.

It still had a little bit of texture to it, you know?

We'll do like a little like base all together.

We'll clean the crab. It'll be great.

Yeah.

I'll go jalapeno over bell pepper any day.

Everything you think you should do is moderated

and modulated by what you yourself would do

in the same situation.

It's a hard thing to kind of get away from.

There's no avoiding it any longer.

We're gonna have to go to the stove

and actually start making some bad decisions here.

You know, it sort of like occurs to you,

as you like lob a small brick of butter into a skillet,

that like you don't actually recall tasting butter.

But, you just kinda have to start somewhere

and see how things behave, and see how things react,

and hope that it informs better decisions later on.

Maybe some black pepper here, too. Why not?

And when these kind of feel like they've softened

and developed enough flavor,

gonna have to throw some flour in there and cook it out.

You don't want raw flour in there,

but we can't take it too far.

Is that a metal whisk on a nonstick skillet?

Why, yes it is.

Sometimes that's just how it goes.

Between the butter and the heavy cream,

the flour is having a hard time holding that fat

in suspension.

There's just not enough, like, water content.

Maybe I'll throw a splash of milk in here, too.

Okay, we now have a hot mixture that we want to get cold.

We can like sit around, waiting for it to get cold

in the freezer, or you can like speed that right along.

And then the crab can just go right in there.

And then, we're just gonna kind of try

to mold one of these things.

I'm just gonna take some of this crab.

Still like too much fat, but like,

we're gonna be able to coat that.

We're gonna do with like our three-part dredge.

The texture of the crab cake that I tried was sturdy.

It did not feel like the mixture itself was like, you know,

stiff by any means.

The inside was, you know, a little bit more tender,

a little bit more supple.

I think the sturdiness was born of the robustness

of the coating, what I assume to be flouring

and bread crumbing of it.

It's not not holding together.

I thought I might need to chill them,

but it was holding together just fine.

We're gonna try shallow-frying this. Okay?

If there is potato in there, a piece of me may die today.

It kind of looks like a weird little mutant donut, right?

Let's try the crab cake while it's hot.

You know what the sick thing is? It's really not bad.

It's almost like not pasty enough.

The jalapeno ended up adding more heat than I was expecting.

Like, this is like almost too light,

which sounds weird for something that was

like literally, like, weeping buttery tears.

Mine could be a little bit firmer.

But the coating, the fact that it kind of wants to pull away

from the mixture a little bit, that feels appropriate.

I don't know, there's too much heat coming from this.

This is also just like bound so tightly.

The butter needs to come down,

if there even is butter in there.

I mean, it could be oil.

It could be something else. I don't know.

Like, am I overthinking it?

Is it as simple as like, oh,

just like whack some mayonnaise, and some flour, frankly,

inside the crab cake?

But yeah, back to the aioli, Holy Hannah.

Like, is this a world where, like,

you're making your own aioli from scratch?

I feel like I always choose wrong on these things, you know?

Oh, you should have like made your own mayo.

Let's just make something and see what happens.

I don't know.

I guess I have no choice but just to go

with some of the flavors that I felt I was perceiving.

I've got an egg yolk. I've got a pinch of salt.

I've got some lemon juice

and just a little, little tip of a spoon of mustard.

So, I'm gonna start with olive oil,

and then see if I need to switch to neutral.

A thought I had a short while ago was

should we make some of this mixture,

throw it together with some of the crab,

throw some flour on there, and fry that?

[beep]

Great.

Well, I think the aioli broke.

We got the food processor.

I mean, like really, like we're gonna use a food processor

to make [beep] aioli?

I mean, really?

I just don't even think it works that well.

[Man] How did this one work out?

Oh my [beep] God.

All right, so we got the food processor.

Overcoming adversity, we're overcoming failure.

That's what this show is about.

It needs the garlic.

I guess, let's mix a little bit with some hot sauce

and see what happens.

I mean, that's good. Is it correct, though?

I think, in the interest of sanity,

let's just make a new crab cake.

Let's see what happens when the aromatics go in raw.

Let's maybe fry it like

at like a little bit lower temperature.

Maybe they'll soften up just enough, you know?

I'm not gonna go to bell pepper.

I'm just gonna use less jalapeno,

couple tablespoons of aioli,

enough for a couple of crab cakes, a little flour.

Why not?

We don't really have time to cool it down today.

This is holding it together just enough so that

if I were to chill it, molded into patty shape,

I think we could probably get away with it.

But, is that what I'm actually gonna do?

I don't know.

Let's also do a pinch of salt, cracked pepper.

Are we gonna get away with it?

[upbeat music]

We really need to chill it.

Whatever comes out of this freezer is going in there

and then getting fried.

Please hold together.

In a perfect world, that would have chilled

for like an hour.

But, this is definitely the point of the day

in which everything just feels wrong, you know?

All right, so we're gonna plate this one up.

Why isn't anybody making any sounds?

I mean, I was wearing a [beep] blindfold.

What do you want? Okay?

Yeah, this is giving me that like,

that pastier thing inside.

It tastes good.

I think it's giving me some structure that feels better

to me.

Feeling okay about the raw aromatics.

In my first version, you know,

the method was like highly unusual,

but it had like a really particular kind of benefit.

The mixture was robust enough that it could be dredged

and fried right away.

We kind of got to, at the end of the day, like,

something of a similar place,

but just like in using such wildly different methods.

I want to chill it further next time.

I mean, we barely got away with that.

But sauce, I don't know.

Something's going on with the sauce.

I'm withholding further comments

until I do the next tasting.

Ingredients, I'm gonna be generous with myself

and call this a 72.

There could be like eight other things lurking in here.

Technique, maybe a 75.

I mean, everybody seemed to be pushing real hard

for the frigging food processor.

And for the record, I used it under duress.

Appearance, 80.

They're a little chunky,

but like that's what it seemed to be.

And the taste, it's not quite there.

There's some stuff that's off here.

I'd say like, you know, like again, like maybe a 75.

So, that puts me at a 76, solid C average.

And that might even be a bit charitable.

Cannot wait to try the original dish again.

Let's do a better reveal.

Sorry, I was like, that was a real half-assed, like,

just like, you know?

Let's do like a real, okay.

Yeah. Nice.

I don't know how I missed that on the first go.

Like, I keep wanting to say it's parsley.

But then, there's like the salt with it, too.

They're certainly not as big as I was making them.

I feel like I got a little piece of cornichon.

It's funny,

my experience of it is like completely different now.

The notion that this could be cayenne

adding just like that prickle in the back of your throat.

I mean, I think that could certainly be an option.

The crab cakes, is it mayo in here or just egg?

What is this crab and aromatics, like, suspended in?

I can't believe I didn't think about like breadcrumbs,

or just bread.

So, I have a very pointed question to ask.

Do we have any like soft white bread?

[Summer] No.

No.

God, I would have guessed that it was bread

and not bread crumb.

And I feel like real lost right now.

Like, the breadcrumb isn't just gonna simply disappear

in there.

You know?

That's my hang up here.

Ah!

[beep]

Falling apart here.

Yeah, I'll take a lifeline, even if it costs me.

I feel like I wanna,

I feel like I need something that's like

in the crab cake itself.

[Woman] Chris, the ingredient that we are giving you

is Creole seasoning.

Creole seasoning?

I feel bad, like every time I think something might be,

like vaguely, like, you know, Creole, Cajun,

I think of Emeril.

I don't know.

I mean, it makes me think about like the,

you know, the kind of like the textures here.

I just want to do one thing.

And I want to put a whole egg plus breadcrumb

and see where that nets me in terms of texture

for this like kind of panade direction.

Creole seasoning in the crab cake?

[Man] Yes.

Interesting.

I feel like that does kind of make sense

from the standpoint of like, yeah,

like an old school kind of approach, you know?

I guess I'm gonna err on the side of feeling like anybody

who puts Creole seasoning in something

is probably gonna go ahead and use,

this is the trinity, right, onion, bell pepper and garlic.

Well now, we need to cook this.

[Man] Is there another version of that trinity

that you can think of?

Celery is the only other thing that kind of comes to mind.

Summer, do you have any celery?

[Summer] Yes.

Yeah!

[upbeat music]

Let's get Tony popping.

It manages to taste like a lot and like nothing

at the same time.

It's kind of interesting.

So, this might need to take a little bit more breadcrumb

than what we've got here.

Sub-question, do we feel like Tony is in the sauce?

I feel like the creator of this dish isn't gonna pass up

an opportunity to add more flavor.

Bam.

Does Emerald doubt himself?

It doesn't seem like it.

Let's bam it up.

When you develop recipes for home cooks,

you kind of get used to not making these kinds of decisions,

you know?

But you know, when you're Emeril,

you can do whatever the hell you want.

I'm just gonna chill these slightly

while I heat up the oil.

And then, I feel like we need to return to our sauce.

So, we've got a little bit of shallot.

We've got Tony's.

We've got cayenne, little splash of vinegar,

punch it right up.

Whoa.

I'm frying in vegetable oil, aiming for like 350.

All right, I'm ready to plate.

Bam.

[suspenseful music]

How'd your day go?

Today was okay.

Well, did they give you at least a cold seltzer?

'Cause I know that always cheers you up.

That kind of became a bit of an issue.

So, what do you think you were trying to recreate

and who was the chef?

I feel like we just kind of went all in on, like,

this is like Emeril Lagasse,

like sort of more is more kind of approach to crab cakes.

I've got one word for you, Chris.

Bam!

Bam!

Chris, may I present to you,

Emeril Lagasse's Crab Cakes with Creole Tartar Sauce.

[Chris] Not bad, okay.

Looking pretty good.

So, it was more Tony's on those herbs?

Oh my [beep] God.

I can't even tell you, like,

when your eyes are closed and you are tasting those herbs,

it's like there are like jagged shards

of like broken rock salt.

Let's talk about your ingredients.

You got the holy trinity,

although there was no green bell pepper.

He uses red and yellow bell pepper.

Ah, I was getting that vegetal quality.

I think that that vegetal quality you were picking up on

was actually scallion.

Are you saying there was scallion and onion,

or scallion and no onion?

There's onion. There's scallion.

There's celery, red bell pepper, and yellow bell pepper,

and garlic.

You know what, Rhoda? I come from a school of you get one.

There was a type of cheese.

There was a little voice inside my head just then

that was like, anything but cheese, anything but cheese.

It's Emeril, I'd say like he's probably putting Parmesan

or something in there.

Yep.

There was also lemon juice

and Creole mustard.

Also had white pepper, some Worcestershire,

and a little Tabasco in there.

Awesome.

Okay, so Chris, tell me about your sauce.

I ended up making my own mayo,

kind of aioli sort of thing,

in the food processor, which was hilarious.

And correct, by the way.

[beep] Christ.

It called for it in the recipe.

You got it!

Unbelievable.

You're gonna make that mayonnaise by hand?

Yeah, absolutely.

There's actually two emulsions in this recipe.

One is a mayonnaise that goes into the crab cake mixture.

And then, the other one is an olive oil based

with garlic that's more like an aioli.

If it weren't just like borderline, like,

self-destructively stupid,

I would like take my Air Pods out right now

and throw them at the wall.

I knew you were gonna love that.

I think you picked up on what you were supposed to do.

You dredged the crab cakes

the way it's written in the recipe.

You use a food processor.

And ingredients, we gave you a 74.

Technique-wise, I think you did well. `

I gave you a 90.

[Rhoda] Really? Yeah.

Moving on to appearance, from here over Zoom,

I'm gonna give you 87.

Looks pretty good from here.

What do you think about taste?

I mean, the taste is really close.

There are a lot of ingredients missing

from your version compared to the original.

So, I think I have to go to an 85.

I can live with that.

So, that gives you a total score of 84.

Okay, cool, the consummate B student.

I thought this was gonna be easy for you.

No. Nope, nope, nope.

This one was like shockingly hard.

I don't think I ended up in a terrible place.

But, it felt like torture getting here.

Thank you, Rhoda.

[Rhoda] Take care, bye.

Will you grab me a seltzer, man?

So this is the Limoncello LaCroix.

Maiden voyage.

[Man] Really?

It's got like a cream soda aspect to it.

[Man] It's like a little lemon, a little vanilla.

[Man] It's the vanilla. Yeah.

Oh, the vanilla is [beep] upsetting.

Yikes.