Scalloped crab

Name: Scalloped crab
Yield: To Serve Four
Cuisine: United Kingdom
Ingredients: 50 g (2 oz) finely grated Cheddar cheese; 2 chopped anchovies; 150 ml (¼ pint) single cream; salt, cayenne pepper, grating of nutmeg; salt, cayenne pepper, grating of nutmeg; juice of ½ a lemon; salt, cayenne pepper, grating of nutmeg; 1.5 kg (3 lb) dressed crab; 100 g (4 oz) fresh breadcrumbs; 50 g (2 oz) butter

Preparation info

To Serve
Four

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

British Cooking

By Caroline Conran

Published 1978

About

This is an eighteenth-century recipe and it requires six scallop shells to serve the crab in - you can probably obtain them from the local fishmonger or collect them on the beach; be sure to give them a good scrub before using them for cooking. If you can’t find the shells use small ovenproof cocotte dishes.

Ingredients

50 g (2 oz) butter
1.5 kg (3

Europe
United Kingdom
Fish course
Pescatarian

Method

Melt the butter over a low heat. Stir in the crab meat, both white and brown, and then the breadcrumbs. Add the lemon juice, a tiny pinch of salt, a good sprinkling of cayenne and nutmeg, the anchovies which will add more salt, and cream. Stir till hot and then share the mixture out between the shells. Sprinkle the cheese over the top and brown under a hot grill.