History
Maryland crab soup is the Chesapeake's vegetable-garden soup, a tomato broth packed with corn, lima beans, potatoes and blue crab, seasoned hard with Old Bay. It evolved as a thrifty way to stretch crab through a pot of summer vegetables. Its richer sibling, cream of crab, is a smooth, sherry-laced cream soup. Many Baltimore tables order them side by side, half and half in one bowl, and Chesapeake kitchens treat both as standards.
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Common allergens: Shellfish
Make it at home
Ingredients
- 1 pound blue crab meat, with shells for stock if you have them
- 1 can crushed tomatoes
- 4 cups beef or vegetable stock
- 2 cups mixed vegetables: corn, lima beans, diced potato, carrot, celery
- 2 tablespoons Old Bay seasoning
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- Salt and pepper to taste
Method
- Simmer the stock, crushed tomatoes, Worcestershire and Old Bay together for 10 minutes.
- Add the firmer vegetables (potato, carrot, celery) and cook until just tender, about 15 minutes.
- Stir in the corn and lima beans and simmer for another 10 minutes.
- Fold in the crab meat at the end and warm through gently so the lumps stay whole.
- Taste, adjust the Old Bay and serve hot with extra seasoning on the table.
Tip from the editors. Add the crab last and barely simmer it; long cooking shreds the lumps and dulls the sweetness you want against the spicy broth.
Where to eat maryland crab soup
Maryland crab soup in Baltimore
Gertrude's Chesapeake Kitchen ★ 4.3
Gertrude's at the Baltimore Museum of Art runs a Chesapeake weekend brunch, plating crab Benedict and shrimp and grits on a terrace over the sculpture garden.
OrderCrab Benedict over the BMA sculpture-garden terrace.
TipBook the terrace for brunch overlooking the sculpture garden; the crab Benedict is the move.
Faidley's Seafood ★ 4.7
Faidley's stand inside Lexington Market serves the city's benchmark crab cake since 1886, almost all jumbo lump, eaten standing at a counter off brown paper.
TryJumbo lump crab cake
TipOrder the all-lump grade and eat it at the stand-up rail; it also fries a classic lake trout.
More places near Gertrude's Chesapeake Kitchen and Faidley's Seafood
Not on this list, but close by, nearest first. Every one is in our guide with its address, hours and what to order.
- Le Comptoir du Vin Wine bar, about 350 m away
- Alma Cocina Latina Venezuelan, about 450 m away
- Cookhouse Contemporary American, about 450 m away
- Clavel Mexican, about 750 m away
- W.C. Harlan Cocktail bar, about 750 m away
- Sophomore Coffee Coffee roaster, about 800 m away
More cities are in research. Want maryland crab soup covered somewhere specific? Tell us where you want to eat.