SETH: Brandon.

BRANDON: Hey, nice to meet you, Seth.

SETH: Nice to meet you as well.

Kristal.

KRISTAL: Hi, Seth.

How are you?

SETH: I'm doing well and, uh... KRISTAL: Pleasure to meet you.

SETH: I see you've got you got your hands full there with a lot of delicious looking crab.

KRISTAL: Yes.

I am actually picking all the shells out of the crab.

Glad I'm a tactile person 'cause it definitely helps.

SETH: Well, they haven't really invented a better way to get shells out of the crab meat.

KRISTAL: They have not.

I think that's gonna be my next new invention.

(laughs) SETH: Well, good luck on that.

And, uh, I, personally, love crab.

Uh, what are you guys making today?

BRANDON: So today, we're making our True Blue Maryland Crab Burger and that's our signature dish here at Fishscale.

SETH: Well, you know, I've had plenty of crab cakes in my day but I don't think I've ever had a crab burger.

What's that all about?

BRANDON: It's all Maryland blue crab.

We don't use any breadcrumbs or fillers so we like to say no cake in our crab cake, so we call it a burger.

SETH: If there's no filler, what are you gonna use to hold it all together?

BRANDON: So, we make a mousse out of shellfish.

Uh, we use lobster tails, we use scallops, and we use, uh, wild blue shrimp.

SETH: And this is the mousse right here?

BRANDON: Yes.

It took a lot of trial and error but I just got the right formula.

SETH: You almost had to be like a scientist to kinda come up with this invention?

BRANDON: Yes, like a mad scientist.

(laughs) KRISTAL: Yup, actually our dad is a marine biologist so I think he got a little bit of that scientific bug.

(laughs) SETH: Well, I'm glad you're applying it to food.

So how does this, uh, all get put together here?

BRANDON: So, uh, we have the jumbo lump crab meat.

SETH: And you gotta be a little more delicate with that 'cause you don't wanna be breaking up those nice beautiful chunks of crab meat there, right?

KRISTAL: Not at all.

Not at all.

BRANDON: So now, Kristal has mixed in the jumbo lump.

We will season it with a little bit of salt and pepper.

This is pink, uh, Himalayan salt.

SETH: Oh, nice.

BRANDON: Then a little bit of pepper in there.

And then I have the hardest task of all.

I have to quality assure, I could taste it and see if it's good.

(laughs) Oh my goodness, that's a, that's amazing.

SETH: Oh, man.

You're gonna offer me the jumbo lump, you're so kind.

BRANDON: Oh man.

SETH: Mmm.

BRANDON: I'll tell you, how can you, how can you improve on that?

It's just... SETH: There's just nothing like Maryland crab.

BRANDON: Yeah.

SETH: It's just the best.

BRANDON: I would put it up against any crab anywhere, hands down.

SETH: Amen to that.

BRANDON: Now, I'm gonna take the shellfish mousse and I fold it in gently.

You just kind of spread it over the top and then I just fold it in.

So you have to be really gentle with it, care, take care of it.

SETH: Doesn't even take too much of it for it all start to kind of bind together BRANDON: Yeah.

Yup.

Yup.

It's like a, almost like a paste that keeps everything together.

But it's, it's, it's flavor in the paste.

We actually are adding more seafood so... SETH: Right.

BRANDON: We're taking what God made and adding more of what God made so it's just like an abundance of flavor.

So now we're gonna form the patties.

So we're gonna take a ring mold.

It gives us that burger shape.

So we take a nice generous amount and we put it in the mold.

SETH: And I know, a lot of times, if I head out to a crab house, crabs are coming in from the Gulf Coast, the Carolinas.

Is it hard sourcing true Maryland crab?

KRISTAL: At times it can be but we've built up a really good relationship with the crab houses that, that we work with on the Eastern Shore.

SETH: Must be kind of fun to occasionally head out to the Eastern Shore just to, just to meet with the suppliers.

KRISTAL: Absolutely.

SETH: A little field trip.

KRISTAL: It is absolutely fun.

BRANDON: So, now that we have the patties formed, there's just one more step.

So let's walk over here and take it to the freezer.

SETH: Sounds good.

So you're gonna freeze the burgers, Chef?

BRANDON: Yes.

So the mousse helps bind it together but we just wanna add a little extra insurance with freezing it so it'll firm up.

So when we cook it, it doesn't fall apart.

SETH: Stays nice and together.

BRANDON: So, essentially, like a hockey puck.

SETH: A delicious hockey puck.

BRANDON: Yeah, yeah.

A delicious one.

So once it firms up in the freezer for about 30 minutes, we take it out.

We pan sear it in the hot pan.

Get it nice and caramelized.

And then we flip it, put it in the oven to cook it through so that shellfish mousse cooks.

So we have an olive oil bun that we get from a local bakery.

We lightly grill it on our hardwood charcoal grill.

And once that's done, we add our signature condiments on and then we just enjoy.

SETH: Brandon, Kristal, thank you guys so much for letting me come see how you put this crab burger together.

I'm just gonna dig in.

Guys, that is delicious.

(laughs) The flavor of the crab, just so simple, so buttery.

What's the relish that you put on the crab burger?

BRANDON: So it's a, it's a cucumber tomato relish we make in-house and we, uh, just use a little bit of apple cider vinegar.

The burger is just so unctuous that it helps kinda coat it with a little bit of acidity.

KRISTAL: And the great thing about it, the cucumber tomato relish, I love it, but when customers come in, they can pick any of our house-made condiments.

We have one from southeast Asia, the spicy sambal.

So if you wanted to add a kick to any of your burgers, that is absolutely a great choice.

SETH: If the crab's not enough for you, you wanna... KRISTAL: Exactly.

If you want a little kick to go along with your crab.

SETH: All right.

And you picked a pretty good area to be opening a fish burger restaurant.

BRANDON: Yes, um, the Mid-Atlantic area, we have just a bounty of seafood.

But we also have an array of fish coming from the, uh, west coast area, uh, down in the Florida Gulf.

So we really get a lot of fish that maybe a lot of people that come in, they don't see often or they haven't tried before.

So we like showing people a little bit something new and giving them a different option.

SETH: Well, I'm glad for the crab burger, you're sticking close to home.

Maryland crab, just one of my favorites.

And, Kristal, great job with the shells.

(laughs) This was clean and delicious.

KRISTAL: Yay.

SETH: Thank you guys so much.

BRANDON: Yeah.

Thank you.