North America · Volume 33, The Rice Coast, the Corridor and the Delta
She-crab soup
Charleston, South Carolina
Illustration
- Time
- 45 minutes
- Researched
- Researched from 117 sources in the brief
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
- to taste salt
- a pinch white pepper
Method
- Melt the butter, sweat the onion until soft, then stir in the flour and cook briefly to a pale roux.
- Whisk in the stock gradually, avoiding lumps, and simmer until lightly thickened.
- Add the cream, a pinch of mace, and warm through gently.
- 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
- 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.
- 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.