Crab melts are an easy but sophisticated appetizer with a creamy, cheesy crab mixture that’s baked onto slices of French bread. Everyone will go crazy for these!

New Year’s Eve in years past has meant a fancy dinner for my husband and I. The kids were young and went to bed early, so I’d feed them something then, and we'd have a quiet little date night in later in the evening.

The last couple of years, we’ve gone to a neighbor’s house for an early “countdown” and balloon drop for the kiddos. Everyone brought something and we kinda called that dinner, whatever we ended up eating.

Being here at the end of 2020, there will be no neighborhood parties, and I’m just not up for making a big meal.

So instead, this year, I’m doing a big spread of appetizers for our New Year’s Eve. I’ll have some kid favorites, some adult favorites, and we can all just graze and nosh and stuff ourselves as we hang out and watch movies.

(Come on, that sounds like a pretty great plan, right?!)

And even though it’s the very last day of the year, I had to share with you a family appetizer recipe I recently discovered that would be perfect for ringing in the new year.

Crab melts are a recipe in my Aunt Edith’s packet of favorite recipes she shared with me years ago, but I hadn’t made them until recently.

They sounded kinda fancy, but very do-able and all kinds of flavorful.

Another crab appetizer from my aunt that I have shared before is this quickie crab dip, which is just 3 ingredients and great served cold with crackers.

Today, we’re going hot and melty. It’s wintertime after all, and that just seems appropriate.

These crab melts are cheesy and so delicious. The creamy crab mixture is spooned over slices of French bread and then baked until they are bubbly, toasty and totally devour-able.

They make an excellent appetizer for a party. Super sophisticated but also really quick and easy. That’s my kind of entertaining combo.

Speaking of, you might also like these spicy roasted shrimp or shrimp martini appetizer and some baked brie with cranberry sauce.

Old fashioned stuffed mushrooms are a party classic, too.

But today we’re doing crab, we’re doing melts and your mouth will be watering after you get your first taste of these!

So let’s get cooking.

Now, I’ve got some notes and tips coming up on how to make crab melt appetizers. Just tryin’ to be helpful.

If you want to jump on down to the recipe, simply scroll right on through the rest of the text. The recipe card is near the bottom of the page, above the comments section.

Notes on making crab melts:

• You’ll want to buy a 6 oz. can of flaked crabmeat for this recipe. See below for details.
• Make sure to pick over your crabmeat, as little bits of shell can get into it and you don’t want that in your appetizer. (You’ll feel it with your fingers if you run into a little piece - it’s hard and you can pull it right out and discard it.)
• A 2 oz. jar is the smallest I can find for canned pimientos at the store. I ended up using all of it (instead of just 1 oz. as my aunt’s recipe calls for) and it worked great.
• I use a sharp white cheddar cheese for this recipe. A yellow cheddar would work well, too, or you could try swapping out cheddar for a different cheese or cheese blend if you prefer.
• You could add some hot sauce or a dash of cayenne pepper if you want to make these a bit spicy.

This makes a lot - enough for two whole loaves of bread. That’s great for a crowd but you could also only put the spread on one loaf and save the remaining mixture for another day or two.

You could also substitute baguettes or another type of bread if you prefer.

OK, let’s talk buying crab.

There’s a ton of options at the store, and I know it can get confusing - and intimidating!

What type of crabmeat should I buy?

- You’ll need a 6 oz. can of crabmeat for this recipe. Look for backfin or special crabmeat, which have lots of good flavor but are also a good consistency for mixing into this appetizer.

- Lump and jumbo lump crabmeat, which are more expensive, aren’t necessary because we don’t want those huge chunks of crabmeat for our spread.

Here’s a good guide to choosing crabmeat if you want to read more.

Finally, if you have leftovers, don’t fret. You don’t need to toss them at the end of the night.

I wrapped and saved my leftover bread with the crab mixture in a single layer in a large plastic container. Then I reheated them the next day in the toaster oven, and they were just as warm and tasty.

Leftover seafood is questionable after a couple of days though, so I would recommend enjoying them within the first couple of days after you make it.

I hope you give this a try for your next cocktail party - or at-home soiree like us.

Enjoy and happy New Year!

XO,

Kathryn