[6] The appetizers are cooked to crispness by deep-frying in vegetable oil or by baking.

[8][13] Crab rangoon was on the menu of the "Polynesian-style" restaurant Trader Vic's in Beverly Hills in 1955[14] and in San Francisco since at least 1956.

[15][16][17] Although the appetizer has the name of the Burmese city of Rangoon, now known by Burmese as 'Yangon',[18] the dish was probably invented in the United States by Chinese-American chef Joe Young working under Victor Bergeron, founder of Trader Vic's.

[19][20][18] Trader Vic's featured a menu that included American Chinese cuisine, which could have led to the invention of the crab rangoon when working with wonton wrappers.

[21] A "Rangoon crab a la Jack" was mentioned as a dish at a Hawaiian-style party in 1952 but without further detail and so may or may not be the same thing.