She Crab Soup


 
G

Gerry D.

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I know this isn't a bbq request but I have found that this is the best place when it comes to all things culinary.

My family vacations in Nags Head every year and one of our favorite dishes that we always eat down there is She Crab Soup. Anyone have a good recipe? I have a couple of recipes that I have been looking at and would like to make some for Christmas.

Crab roe is going to be hard to come by but most recipes I found seem to substitute hard boiled egg yolk.

The crab meat is what I was really thinking about. Would it be worth the time and effort to buy crabs, cook them, and then pick them or should I just buy the already picked crab meat? I was thinking about 3 to 4 pounds of crab meat which I would figure would be around six dozen crabs for around 3 pounds of meat.

Anyone make this soup and have any advice? I know I should have though about this when crabs were in season and froze them. Blue crabs are traditional in the soup but I guess any crab would work. Thanks for the help and sorry about the long post.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Would it be worth the time and effort to buy crabs, </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Not really. You do need a base, and the crab shells are helpful for that, but it's really not necessary. You can use a quality purchased seafood, shrimp, lobster or clam base, or you can simply use bottled clam juice (filter it first though).


I often use a quality American caviar for the topping if crab roe is not at hand - usually American Gold. Egg yolk is nice for color and some richness. If going that route, press the cooked yolks through a fine sieve first, just before use, to make its texture fine and light.

See here.
 
Thanks Kevin. I actually have fish, lobster, and clam better than bouillon. Which one would you recommend? Or could I use a combination? Thanks again.
 
I've come up against this (needing good strong shell fish stock) so many times that I now save and freeze/vac seal shrimp shells to toss into any stock I am making for fish cakes, crab soup, seafood chowder, etc, etc. Next time you do clams save that broth, boil it down to about 1/2 or more and freeze it.

It's funny that folks save bones, left over au juis, stock etc but when they are peeling shrimp just toss it and think later - DOH! That would have done good here. Same with left over liquor from clams, oysters, scallops, etc. Save it, you'll use it.

I also often use a can of those baby clams to fortify fish cakes and other stuff with good results.
 
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