She-Crab Soup

No dish is more quintessential Lowcountry than our famous she-crab soup, yet judging from the pasty versions served in most restaurants you would think its major ingredient is flour. In Two Hundred Years of Charleston Cooking, published in 1930, the recipe is attributed to “Mrs. Rhett’s able butler, William Deas, who is one of the greatest cooks in the world.” His recipe for a dozen crabs calls for only a teaspoon of flour as thickener in more than 2 cups of liquid.