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June 3
Menu: Crab Soup; Salmon, la Francesca; Veal, Roasted; Chiffonade Salad; Cheese; Crackers; Tipsy Pudding; Coffee; Crab Soup Remove cooked meat; from 6 hard-shelled crabs and chop; finely. Add 3 cups white stock, 2/3; cup stale breadcrumbs, 1 slice of onion,; 1 sprig of parsley, and simmer 20; minutes. Blend together 1 table-; spoon Crisco and 1 tablespoon flour,; and add 1 cup cream, salt and red; pepper to taste. Combine mixtures; and bring to boiling point.
A cream-thickened crab soup of the Chesapeake type, written to show off Crisco in place of butter in the roux. The instructions are compressed; a few points are worth knowing before you start.
- White stockIn this period this meant a mild, lightly seasoned stock from veal knuckle or chicken. A light chicken stock is the closest modern equivalent; avoid dark or heavily seasoned broth, which will bury the crab.
- How much crabSix hard-shelled crabs pick out to roughly 3/4 to 1 cup of meat. Buying about 6 to 8 oz of fresh lump or backfin crabmeat gets you to the same place.
- Cook the roux"Blend together" understates it. Cook the Crisco and flour together over low heat for a minute or two before the cream goes in, or the soup tastes of raw flour. Add the cream gradually and whisk smooth.
- Red pepperThis is cayenne, not paprika or chile flakes. A pinch is enough; it should sharpen the crab, not announce itself.
- Stale breadcrumbsThese are the main body of the soup along with the flour. Use dry crumbs from a plain white loaf, not seasoned packaged crumbs, and expect them to dissolve into the broth during the 20 minutes of simmering.
- "Bring to boiling point"Take that literally and no further. Once the cream is in, keep the heat gentle; hard boiling risks curdling and toughens the crab, which needs only to be heated through.
- Strain or notThe onion slice and parsley sprig are aromatics meant to be fished out. If you want a smoother soup, strain the stock mixture before combining and return the crab afterward.
- YieldAbout 4 to 5 cups finished, serving four as a first course. Salt at the end, since the crab and stock both contribute.
A Calendar of Dinners was Procter & Gamble's promotional cookbook for Crisco, the hydrogenated cottonseed shortening the company introduced in 1911, and its recipes exist largely to demonstrate that the new fat could stand in for butter and lard anywhere in the day's menus u2014 frying, baking, and here in a cream soup's roux. The dish itself belongs to an older American tradition: thick crab soups bound with breadcrumbs and cream are often associated with Chesapeake Bay and Baltimore cookery, though the recipe itself carries no regional label, and the technique of using stale bread as a thickener is older still, reaching back to medieval European practice. The recipe's placement in a dated calendar of menus — boiled halibut with lobster sauce follows on June 4 — reflects the era's assumption that a housekeeper wanted the whole year's dinners decided for her, not a collection to browse.