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Bisque of Crab
4 large crabs 1 cup rice 3 pints white stock 1 tablespoon shortening 1 tablespoon flour 1 cup cream 1/2 teaspoon salt few grains pepper Wash and boil live crabs, open them and take out meat. Cut fine and pound to a paste. Add the washed rice and crabs to the stock and simmer thirty minutes. Rub through a sieve. Bind with shortening and flour cooked together; add cream and seasonings, reheat and serve. Serves 6.
A classic rice-thickened shellfish bisque: the rice does most of the body, the roux only finishes it. Two things decide whether it succeeds — how thoroughly you extract the crab and how finely you sieve.
- White stockThree pints (6 cups) of unseasoned light stock — veal, chicken, or a fish stock made from the crab shells. Modern boxed chicken broth is saltier than the original intends, so hold back the half teaspoon of salt until the end.
- CrabsFour large crabs means four hard-shell blue crabs or one large Dungeness, yielding roughly 1 to 1 1/2 cups (about 8 oz) of picked meat, which is what to buy if you are not picking your own. Save the shells and simmer them in the stock for 20 minutes first, then strain, for extra flavour.
- ShorteningIn a book of this vintage shortening means any solid fat — lard, hydrogenated vegetable fat, or butter. Butter is the best choice here and does the same binding job in a 1:1 roux.
- RiceOne cup of raw rice, washed. It is the thickener, not a garnish, and thirty minutes of simmering is meant to leave it collapsing. Stir the bottom of the pan — rice sinks and scorches, and scorched rice ruins the whole pot.
- Rub through a sieveA blender or immersion blender does this in a minute; pass the puree through a fine sieve afterwards to catch shell fragments and any rice that has not broken down. Reserve a spoonful or two of whole crab meat before pounding and add it at the reheat, so there is something to find in the bowl.
- Reheat, do not boilOnce the cream is in, keep it below a simmer. Boiled cream in a starch-heavy shellfish soup breaks and turns grainy.
- ConsistencyRice thickens further as it stands. If it sets up like porridge, thin with warm stock rather than more cream.
- ServingServes 6 as a first course in small cups, not as a main dish. A dash of sherry or a grating of nutmeg at the table is period-appropriate and welcome.