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Five-Layer Crab Dip

Justin Chung

BY The Editors

PUBLISHED June 11, 2025

This recipe is a reimagining of Crab Louie, a classic steakhouse dish of chilled crabmeat with a mayo and chili–based dressing, usually including ingredients like lettuce and hard-boiled eggs. You can make the bitter lime mayo ahead of time, and then all that’s left to do for this dip is cut up the fruit. The crab, citrus, mayo, and shichimi (a Japanese 7-spice mix) are layered in a wide bowl so that each bite eats like a deeply craveable flavor cycle of fat, acid, and spice. – Ari Kolender

 

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Five-Layer Crab Dip

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Makes 6 to 8 servings 1x

Units Scale

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup (110 g) Meyer lemon “soft suprêmes” or equal parts orange and lime “soft suprêmes” (see box)
  • 1 pound (450 g) cooked crabmeat (the best you can find), picked over for bits of shell
  • 1 recipe Bitter Lime Mayo (page 293)
  • 1 tablespoon shichimi or yuzu shichimi, or to taste, depending on the spice level of your shichimi
  • 2 tablespoons minced fresh chives
  • Ritz crackers, for serving

Instructions

Cut the citrus “soft suprêmes” into 1/4-inch (6 mm) pieces. Lay the crab in a single layer in a wide serving bowl. Dollop the mayo over the top and spread it gently into a single layer. Sprinkle the citrus pieces over the top. Blanket it with a thin layer of shichimi, followed by the chives. Serve immediately, with Ritz crackers.

– Excerpted from How to Cook the Finest Things in the Sea by Ari Kolender (Artisan Books)

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