She-crab soup

As tradition built it

Serves 4. About 45 minutes.

Ingredients

• 50g butter
• 1 small onion, finely diced
• 40g flour
• 700ml fish or shellfish stock
• 250ml double cream
• 300g fresh blue crab meat, picked
• roe from 1 female crab, if available crab roe, if available
• ½ tsp mace, 3 tbsp dry sherry, salt and a pinch of white pepper, to taste mace, sherry, salt and white pepper

Method

1. Melt the butter, sweat the onion until soft, then stir in the flour and cook briefly to a pale roux.
2. Whisk in the stock gradually, avoiding lumps, and simmer until lightly thickened.
3. Add the cream, a pinch of mace, and warm through gently.
4. Fold in the crab meat and roe, season, and finish each bowl with a splash of dry sherry.

Notes

The popular claim that the dish was created to impress President Taft is local legend, not documented fact; the one documented innovation, adding female crab roe for colour and richness, is credited to William Deas, a Black chef and butler at the John Rutledge House.

What a modern chef changes

A properly clarified shellfish stock, built as its own stage

Rung 6

Method

1. Build a dedicated shellfish stock from the crab shells themselves, roasted first for depth, then simmered and skimmed, rather than a generic fish stock, for a soup with real crab character underneath the cream.
2. Pass the finished base through a chinois before adding the cream, for a genuinely smooth, restaurant-grade texture rather than a homely, slightly grainy one.