Maryland · Soup
Maryland Crab Soup
- Intermediate
- 1 h 30 m
- roughly 4 of 4 for cost
A quiet dish that lets its main ingredient speak: season well and stand aside.
Ingredients
- 1kg crab shells and bodies for stock, or 1L seafood stock
- 400g lump crab meat
- 115g bacon or beef shank (optional)
- 2 onions, diced
- 3 carrots, diced
- 3 celery ribs, diced
- 500g potatoes, cubed
- 400g crushed tomatoes
- 200g green beans, cut
- 200g corn kernels
- 200g lima beans
- 2 tbsp Old Bay
- 2 bay leaves
- Salt and pepper
The skills inside
Sweating aromatics: soft, never browned
The words inside
Allergen screen
Found: shellfish · celery
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Simmer the shells in 2L water 45 min to make stock, then strain. 45 min
- Sweat the onion, carrot, and celery until soft, 10 min. 10 min
- Add the stock, tomatoes, potatoes, Old Bay, and bay leaves. Simmer 20 min. 20 min
- Add the green beans, corn, and limas and cook 12 min more. 12 min
- Fold in the crab meat at the very end and heat 2 min only. Season and serve with more Old Bay at the table. 2 min
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the technique it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Sweating aromatics: soft, never browned 198 recipes
- No colour anywhere: tipped under the light the pieces are translucent to pale gold, with no tan edges, no brown tips, and no browned flecks suspended in the fat.
- The pan is quiet: a low steady hiss, not a crackle. A crackle means the moisture has gone and browning has already started.
- The largest piece pressed against the side of the pan collapses without resistance and with no crunch left at its centre.
- The fat is still clear and loose in the pan and the pan floor is clean: nothing caught, nothing browned on to deglaze, because there was never any fond to build.
- It tastes sweet and mild with no raw allium bite at the back of the throat, and none of the roasted sweetness that belongs to the next technique up the heat scale.
Where it goes wrong The heat was too high and nothing covered the pan, so the pieces took colour before they softened; the finished dish carries a roasty sweetness where it wanted a clean one, and the pieces are still firm at the centre under browned edges.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Albariño
- Also Right
- Champagne
- From the Taps
- Pilsner or witbier
- Zero-Proof
- White grape & tonic
Shellfish sweetness meets acid, salinity, and bubbles, precision instruments for delicate meat.
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