January 31, 2027
Charlotte, North Carolina, United States
27th Annual Soup on Sunday
By Red Rocks - Charlotte and The Crunkleton
in 3 months
🇺🇸 United States · Charleston, South Carolina
She-crab soup
A creamy Lowcountry crab soup of blue crab meat and cream, enriched with the orange roe of the female crab and finished with dry sherry.
Origin and history
She-crab soup is the cream-and-crab soup of Charleston, South Carolina, named for the roe of the female blue crab. Charleston tradition credits William Deas, cook to Mayor R. Goodwyn Rhett, with adding roe to the soup in the early 1900s at the John Rutledge House. Some food historians suggest descent from the Scottish partan bree, a crab soup. Home cooks widely served it by the 1930s, and it is South Carolina's state soup.
Make it at home
- Makes
- 6 servings
- Total time
- 50 min
- Hands-on
- 35 min
Ingredients
- 60 g4 tbsp butter
- 1 small onion, very finely chopped
- 1 stalk celery, very finely chopped
- 30 g1/4 cup plain flour
- 475 ml2 cups fish stock or light chicken stock
- 475 ml2 cups whole milk
- 240 ml1 cup heavy cream
- 450 g1 lb blue crab meat, jumbo lump or lump, picked over for shell
- 60 g1/4 cup crab roe, from female crabs; or 2-3 hard-boiled egg yolks, sieved, if roe is unavailable
- 1/4 tsp ground mace or nutmeg
- 1 pinch cayenne
- 60 ml1/4 cup dry sherry, plus a little extra to serve
- salt and white pepper, to taste
- chopped chives or parsley, to garnish
Method
-
1. Melt the butter in a heavy pot over medium-low heat. Cook the onion and celery for about 8 minutes, until very soft but not coloured.
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2. Stir in the flour and cook for 2 minutes, stirring, to make a pale roux.
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3. Whisk in the stock a little at a time, then the milk, until smooth. Simmer gently for 10 minutes.
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4. Add the cream, mace and cayenne. Stir in the roe (or sieved egg yolk) and simmer gently for 5 minutes, until the soup is orange-tinged and lightly thick.
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5. Fold in the crab meat and warm it through for 5 minutes without boiling.
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6. Stir in the sherry and season with salt and white pepper.
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7. Serve in warm cups or bowls, with a few drops of sherry and a sprinkle of chives over each.
Notes
- The orange roe of the female crab gives the soup its name, colour and savoury depth. Female blue crabs carrying eggs are protected in South Carolina, so roe is hard to find and some restaurants leave it out or use sieved hard-boiled egg yolk, as a published Charleston Receipts-style recipe suggests.
- Published recipes differ a lot: a Charleston Magazine recipe from a Charleston restaurant chef uses a flour roux, a quart of cream, 1 lb of crab and 1/2 cup of roe, and purees most of the crab; an older milk-based recipe simply simmers 2 cups of crab and roe with flour, mace and Worcestershire in a double boiler. The version here sits between them, with mace and a light roux.
- Sherry goes in at the end, or into the bowl before the soup is ladled over it (4-6 tablespoons for a quart of soup in the milk-based recipe), so its aroma survives. Use dry sherry.
- The soup can be thick and filling or thin and velvety; adjust with extra milk or stock.
- Make-ahead: the base keeps a day; add the crab and sherry when reheating gently.
Adapted from Discover South Carolina, A Taste of SC: Just What Is She-Crab Soup?, The Takeout, She-crab soup and its South Carolina origin, and Charleston Magazine, She-Crab Soup (Frank McMahon, Hank's Seafood).
At the festivals
Served at 1 festival in United States.
Coming up
January 31, 2027