Woke-Crab Soup

Maryland Eastern Shore recipe for She-Crab Soup handed down generation to generation from the early settlers

The soup is named for the "she-crab", or female crab, a roe-carrying crab, as the orange crab roe comprised a chief ingredient in traditional she-crab soup. Regulations in Maryland and other states restrict the collection of egg-bearing female crabs, so the sex of the crab used may be either male or female. So it may be she-crab, he-crab, refuse-to-say-crab, they-crab, or kitty-crab soup. If you have a dietary restriction for butter, half and half, whole milk, salt, gluten, or sherry, just make something else. Don’t defile the sanctity of this age-old recipe by subsituting anything.

Ingredients (serves 4)

• 1/2 lb salted butter (2 sticks)

• 1/3 cup all purpose four

• 1 tsp salt (to taste)

• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

• 1/2 tsp mace

• 1/4 tsp nutmeg

• 24 oz (3 cups) half and half

• 24 oz (3 cups) whole milk

• 1 lb backfin crabmeat

• Sherry

• (Optional) handful of oyster crackers

• (Optional) fresh bread

Directions

1. In a medium saucepan, melt butter, whisking in the flour to make a roux. When the roux is smooth, immediately start adding the milk, half and half then the red pepper flakes, mace, nutmeg, and salt. Increase heat. Add crabmeat and stir constantly for a few minutes to make it creamy.

2. Add sherry according to taste.

3. Serve warm in your nicest bowls. Some fresh bread would accompany it very nicely or it could be an appetizer.