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Heirloom Recipe

An Outer Banks recipe as it appeared in From North Carolina Kitchens: Favorite Recipes Old and New, a fifty-year-old public-domain collection from the state’s Home Demonstration Clubs.

HATTERAS-STYLE DRUM FISH

The drum, or channel bass, is perhaps the best-liked fish among the people of Hatteras Island, who have a wide variety to choose from. It was formerly sided, salted, dried, and stacked up, and was available at all times, to be soaked out and cooked. Thrifty housewives now pressure-can enough for their own needs. It is cooked, fresh, by many methods, but the following is a traditional style.

One side of drum, about a foot and a half, with head and tail removed, boiled in water with plenty of salt and pepper, until tender. This should be lifted out in two or three pieces and placed on a platter, to be mixed at the table. Boil and mash 8 medium potatoes, salted. Have ½ pound fat salt pork cut into tiny pieces and fried crisp. Place them in a small dish and pour some of the hot grease in a small pitcher. Mince a medium sized onion and place in small dish.

As in a tossed salad, half the pleasure of eating it is in watching the mixing. So it is with the ritual of mixing Hatteras-Style Drum Fish. The novice has to be shown the first time, but can hold his own with the second and third helpings.

On each serving plate, place a heap of mashed potatoes, a large “hunk” of fish, a spoonful (more or less) of cracklins and onions. Mix thoroughly, season with the drippings and more salt and pepper, if desired.

Some like it mixed in the kitchen and brought to the table ready to eat, perhaps garnished with hard-boiled eggs, parsley, etc., but all agree that it’s wonderful food, especially when served with plenty of corn bread (not the sweet variety), coffee, pickles, and a crisp raw vegetable. Serves six hungry people.

—Mrs. Rebecca Burrus, Dare County, North Carolina

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RIVER ROAD DEVILED CRAB

MAKES 4 SERVINGS

On Route SC 61, the Ashley River Road linking Charleston with the antebellum plantations some dozen miles northwest, there used to be a little fish house called Captain Buddy’s that served the most delicious deviled crab. On recent visits, I’ve looked in vain for Captain Buddy’s; it seems to have disappeared in Charleston’s modern sprawl. Fortunately, I got the deviled crab recipe years ago.

4 tablespoons (½ stick) butter

½ cup finely chopped celery

½ cup finely chopped green or red bell pepper

2 large scallions, finely chopped (include some green tops)

1 pound lump or backfin crabmeat, picked over for bits of shell and cartilage, and flaked

2 hard-cooked eggs, finely chopped

½ cup mayonnaise (measure firmly packed)

6 tablespoons moderately fine soda cracker crumbs

1 tablespoon finely minced parsley

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon black pepper

¼ teaspoon hot red pepper sauce

1 to 2 tablespoons milk, if needed to thin the crab mixture (it should be moist, about the consistency of crab salad)

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Coat four large scallop or blue crab shells with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.

2. Melt the butter in a medium-size heavy skillet over moderate heat; add the celery, bell pepper, and scallions, and sauté for 3 to 5 minutes or until limp, stirring often. Tip into a large mixing bowl, add all remaining ingredients, and toss lightly to mix.

3. Divide the crab mixture among the scallop shells and set on an ungreased baking sheet. Slide onto the middle oven shelf and bake uncovered for 30 to 35 minutes or until tipped with brown.

4. Serve at once. The traditional accompaniments are Hush Puppies and a creamy coleslaw (see Sweet Slaw, Chapter 4).

INNER HARBOR CRAB IMPERIAL

MAKES 4 SERVINGS

If America has a Blue Crab Capital, it is surely Baltimore. Its Inner Harbor, once a fetid backwater of rotting piers and tumbledown warehouses, is today a lively tourist attraction with restaurants serving blue crabs every which way. I’m partial to them