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¼ cup olive oil or 2 tablespoons each olive oil and butter (for frying)

Tarragon-Mustard Sauce (recipe follows)

1. Place the shrimp and crab in a medium-size nonreactive bowl and fork briskly to mix. Fork in the mayonnaise, then the egg. Add the scallions, celery, and bell pepper and mix well. Finally, blend in the bread crumbs, salt, black pepper, and red pepper sauce.

2. Shape the mixture into eight “burgers,” each about 3 inches across and 1 inch thick. Dredge well on both sides in the cornmeal and set aside.

3. Heat the oil in a large, heavy skillet for about 2 minutes over moderate heat, then add half the crab cakes. Reduce the heat to moderate and cook for 3 to 4 minutes on each side or until the crab cakes are golden brown; drain on paper toweling. Cook and drain the remaining crab cakes the same way.

4. Serve hot with Tarragon-Mustard Sauce.

We could always find something to prepare for dinner by fishing in the Mississippi River, Lake Ponchartrain…catfish, trout, croakers, crawfish, or plain old shrimp—my mother would just batter it up and fry it inside the old black skillet.

—DONNA L. BRAZILE, COOKING WITH GREASE: STIRRING THE POTS IN AMERICAN POLITICS

TARRAGON-MUSTARD SAUCE

MAKES ABOUT 1 CUP

Although my older niece, Linda, created this sauce for her sister’s shrimp and crab cakes (which precede), it’s equally delicious with grilled or fried fish or shellfish. An avid gardener with beds of fresh herbs just beyond her kitchen door, Linda sometimes substitutes fresh lemon thyme or oregano for tarragon and finely snipped chives for scallions. I myself have been known to use coarsely chopped cilantro or finely snipped dill in place of the tarragon. Note: This sauce will taste even better if you make it several hours ahead of time and refrigerate until ready to serve.

½ cup firmly packed mayonnaise (use “light,” if you like)

½ cup firmly packed low-fat plain yogurt

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 medium scallion, trimmed and finely chopped (include some green tops)

2 tablespoons coarsely chopped parsley

1 tablespoon coarsely chopped fresh tarragon or 1 teaspoon crumbled dried leaf tarragon

½ teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

½ teaspoon tomato ketchup, or to taste

½ teaspoon hot red pepper sauce, or to taste

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TIME LINE: the people and events that shaped Southern Cuisine

1904

A deadly fungus, present on Asian chestnut trees imported into the U.S., is detected on American chestnuts at the Bronx Zoo. It spreads with heartbreaking speed, decimating the chestnut forests of the Southern Appalachians and blighting trees as far west as Ohio.

1905

Paper-shell pecans are introduced to Georgia and that state soon leads the nation in pecan production.

Galatoire’s opens in New Orleans. Still at its Bourbon Street location, the restaurant continues to serve the dishes that made it famous: shrimp rémoulade, crab maison, Creole gumbo, and pompano with sautéed crabmeat, among others.

Columbus, Georgia, pharmacist Claud A. Hatcher creates a new soft drink and sells it in his father’s grocery. Called Chero-Cola, it is the forerunner of Royal Crown Cola. (See Royal Crown Cola, Chapter 6.)

Vincent Taormina, a Sicilian immigrant living in New Orleans, begins importing Italian delicacies and that small business later morphs into Progresso Foods.

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1. Whisk the mayonnaise, yogurt, and mustard together until smooth and creamy, then mix in all remaining ingredients. Taste for ketchup and hot red pepper sauce, and adjust as needed. The ketchup is to mellow the tartness of the yogurt, not to add sweetness.

2. Cover the sauce and refrigerate for several hours or even overnight.

3. Let the sauce stand at room temperature for about 30 minutes before serving.

SHRIMP ’N’ GRITS

MAKES 4 SERVINGS

Just after the Civil War (or “late unpleasantness,” as some Southerners still call it), shrimp ’n’ grits was simple Charleston breakfast food—nothing more than shrimp, grits, and salt. So says Moreton Neal in introducing her late husband Bill Neal’s 1980s spin