Crab meat makes delicious soups.
While there are many variations on crab soup recipes, usually based on the cook's preference, a few crab soups are widely recognized. She-crab soup, made famous in Charleston, South Carolina, Maryland crab soup, creamy crab bisque and callaloo, a crab soup from the Caribbean are the most popular. Each type of crab soup uses different flavors to enhance the taste of the crab.
She-Crab Soup
She-crab soup is a famous specialty soup from Charleston, South Carolina. She-crab soup is made from blue crabs which live in the waters along the Carolina coast. Legend has it that the soup was created when President Taft visited the Charleston mayor and the chef added crab eggs to a soup for the dinner. She-crab soup is a mix between a bisque and a chowder, and an elegant crab soup for any special occasion. Flour, butter, milk and cream are simmered into a thick, bisque-style soup and then spices, such as white pepper, cayenne pepper, mace and lemon zest, are added for a spicy flavor. Near the end of the cooking process, crab meat and crab roe (crab eggs) are added and then a small amount of sherry is poured in just before serving she-crab soup.
Maryland Crab Soup
Maryland crab soup is a crab and vegetable soup that hails from the state of Maryland. The soup is popular around the world. The key to Maryland crab soup is crab stock. You have to use crab to make a strong crab soup stock and then add it to the Maryland crab soup. The soup is also full of vegetables, such as carrots, onions, tomatoes, potatoes, corn, green beans, peas and cabbage. A little Old Bay seasoning and Worcestershire sauce add some spicy flavor to the crab and vegetable soup.
Crab Bisque
Crab bisque is a creamy soup that uses crab meat to add a rich flavor. The crab bisque is similar to lobster bisque as many of the same ingredients and cooking methods are used. This is a rich crab soup so while it doesn't fit in most diet plans, it is perfect for a special occasion. The key is to use fresh scallions to add flavor and slowly simmer milk, butter and heavy cream to create a rich, creamy flavor. Crab bisque also uses mace to flavor the soup which is a spice similar to nutmeg. You don't need to add the crab until the end of a bisque recipe so the soup will have only a light flavor of crab.
Callaloo
Callaloo is a soup made throughout the Caribbean islands. A few other names for this crab soup include coco, dasheen bush or tannia. The soup, which is especially popular in Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica, uses dasheen, a leafy green, coconut milk, pumpkin, garlic, onion and crab meat to create a delicious soup. Trinidadians often add okra to callaloo which creates a different, but equally tasty, consistency.
Tags: crab soup, Maryland crab, She-crab soup, crab meat, flavor crab, soup made, Charleston South