Nice job, and an interesting work around as an alternative method for making crab cakes that don't hold together when preparing or cooking.
As I see it, the primary reason that you, and others, have had problems with crab cakes in the past is that you're using claw meat. Unfortunately, most recipes for crab cakes simply call for "Crab Meat" without specifying the preferred grade. The primary grades, from highest to lowest both in quality and price are,
Lump (Colossal, Jumbo, Super, Mega, etc)
Backfin
Special
Claw
Lump will produce outstanding crab cakes that hold together well, but is better suited for something more special as the price can easily exceed 2X the price of claw meat. Backfin is a mix of broken pieces of lump mixed with some other white meat from the crab. Special is essentially all white meat. Claw has a bit darker coloring that is off putting to some, but is considered to be the most full flavored of all of the grades. Claw also has something of a shredded or stringy texture that makes it nearly impossible to bind well for cakes. It usually works best in dips, sauces, stuffing, soups/chowders/gumbo, and casseroles, which, for the most part, appears to be what you made.
I typically use backfin when making crab cakes, but I started experimenting some when I was given a half a dozen 1 lb. cans of claw meat a few years ago. One method I found that produced a better bind was to replace some of the dried bread crumbs, saltines, etc. with some fresh white bread, crusts removed, that was pulsed in a food processor. Another method that produced a pretty good result was to puree or emulsify a few scallops and/or shrimp and add that to the mix. The best result I got, however was on a whim when I prepared the mix, folded in the crab meat, then spread everything out in a thin layer on a sheet of wax paper, and sprinkled a very small amount of transglutaminase (aka meat glue) that I had hanging around on the mixture. After refrigerating the mix for an hour, I formed the cakes and they were perfect. They cooked up beautifully, also.
One other thing canned crab, especially with claw meat, is that there's no need to cook it for an extended period of time to 165F, as that will promote drying and further separation. The meat has already been cooked, twice. At initial processing, the crabs are boiled or steamed at around 230F. When cooled, the crabs are picked with the meat separated by grade, then canned. The cans then go through a pasteurization process at around 185F. Simply put, you can just open the can and eat the meat as is without any concern. When I cook crab cakes, most of the time I simply fry them with some oil in a skillet at medium high heat for 3-4 minutes a side to brown and crisp the exterior and warm the interior.
