Crab Imperial

"Crab Imperial" is a seasoned crab casserole gratin. While we likely think of the seasonings as being rather strong individually, in the amounts used in this dish, they just provide a relatively mild flavor, allowing the wonderful crab meat to be the star of the show. Crab meat is expensive, but if you can afford it, give yourself a treat, although you can certainly use imitation crab meat. You want to use "lump crab meat." From what I can tell, the history of this dish is uncertain, but it would make sense that someone decided to make a crab cake dish, but with the breadcrumbs added as a topping for the crab mixture. The area around Baltimore or the entire Chesapeake Bay area would be a good candidate for where "Crab Imperial" started, as the area is noted for "blue crabs," which actually turn a reddish-orange color when steamed over a pot of boiling beer seasoned with "Old Bay," a seasoning invented in Baltimore in the late 1930s, which is easily available in supermarkets or even in some neighborhood grocery stores in the eastern and southern U.S., and I wouldn't be surprised if it's in stores in the western part of the U.S. I'm not sure of its international availability in stores, but in this day and age, you can find it online.

I put this recipe of my own as serving 3 to 4, but it may take some real will power to keep from eating it all yourself.
       
Ingredients (3 to 4 servings):

1 pound lump crab meat
1/3 cup mayonnaise (reduced fat type is fine)
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons parsley 
1 teaspoon paprika
2 tablespoons finely chopped red pepper (sweet or hot)
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (if you use hot chili pepper above, you can omit this, if you'd like)
1 egg
(optional) 1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1/3 cup panko breadcrumbs

Heat the oven to 375 F. Mix together the mayonnaise, Worcestershire sauce, Dijon mustard, lemon juice, egg, paprika, chopped red pepper, ground red pepper, parsley and salt. Then add the lump crab meat and "fold it" into the "sauce," taking care not to break up the crab pieces. Put the mixture into a casserole. Mix the breadcrumbs and melted butter together, then sprinkle the mix over the top of the crab mixture. Bake for about 25 to 30 minutes, until lightly browned and "set." Remove the crab from the oven and let it sit for about 5 minutes before serving, if it's possible to wait that long.  

In the bottom photo, I turned the breadcrumb topping over to show the interior...

WORD HISTORY:
Empire-This word is related to "imperial" and "emperor," words of Latin derivation borrowed by English from Latin-based French, and to "imperative," a word English borrowed from Latin. The "em" part goes back to Indo European "in/en," which meant, "in."  The "pire" part goes back to Indo European "per(e)," which had the notion, "to produce, to bring forth, to get, to obtain.'' These parts gave Latin "imperare," which meant, "to command." This produced the Latin noun "imperium," meaning, "a command, an authority, a realm, lands under control of an authority." This passed into Old French as "empire," with the same meanings. This was borrowed by English in the 1300s. The original English word for "empire" was "rice" (not pronounced like the food, but rather like, "rike-eh," and it is a close relative of "Reich" in German, which once was spelled "riche," and pronounced very similarly to its English cousin.