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1. Cut ¼ inch off the top of each tomato, then scoop out the pulp, leaving tomato shells ½ inch thick. Sprinkle the insides of the tomatoes with the salt, then drain upside down on paper toweling for 20 minutes. Save the tomato tops and pulp for salad another day.

2. Place the crabmeat in a large nonreactive bowl and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of the lemon juice. Carefully fork the crabmeat apart, removing bits of shell and cartilage. In a separate large nonreactive bowl, combine the remaining lemon juice, the cayenne, and black pepper with 4 tablespoons of the mayonnaise.

3. Add the crab and turn it in the dressing just enough to mix without breaking up the lumps. If the salad seems dry, gently mix in the remaining tablespoon of mayonnaise.

4. Scoop into the tomatoes, scatter the chives on top, and serve as the main course of a light luncheon.

FRESH HERB MAYONNAISE

MAKES ABOUT 2 CUPS

This quick mayonnaise is delicious with chicken, turkey, and shrimp salad as well as with the crab salad that precedes. It was created by Lisa Ruffin Harrison of Evelynton Plantation, who grows her own herbs. Note: Because this mayonnaise calls for raw eggs, use the pasteurized here (see About Pasteurized Eggs, frontmatter). Update: A busy working mother like many women today, Lisa has simplified this recipe, which originally appeared in Bon Appétit back in the late 1980s. That was shortly before she married. “If you don’t feel like making a mayonnaise, which these days I find I never have time for,” she recently e-mailed me, “just use a good mayo like Duke’s, our fabulous local brand. Without Duke’s I’d use Hellmann’s but no sweet varieties—heaven forbid!” That means omitting the eggs and the oil below and blending a good commercial mayonnaise with the remaining recipe ingredients. And how much mayonnaise would that be? My suggestion—not Lisa’s—would be to start with 1 cup because this is a good dressing to have on hand. If the flavors seem strong, blend in another half cup or so. Lisa’s homemade mayonnaise, after all, makes two cups.

2 large pasteurized eggs (see Note above)

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

3 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh basil

3 tablespoons coarsely snipped fresh dill

2 tablespoons coarsely chopped Italian parsley

1/8 teaspoon ground hot red pepper (cayenne)

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 cup vegetable oil

1. Blend the eggs, mustard, lemon juice, basil, dill, parsley, cayenne, black pepper, and salt in a food processor for about 1 minute or until reduced to a paste.

2. With the motor running, slowly drizzle the oil down the feed tube, then continue processing until the mayonnaise is thick.

3. Transfer the mayonnaise to a small nonreactive bowl, cover, and store in the refrigerator for up to three days.

* * *

TIME LINE: the people and events that shaped Southern Cuisine

1907

While touring Nashville, Tennessee, President Theodore Roosevelt pauses for a cup of coffee at the famous Maxwell House Hotel. “Good to the last drop,” says old Rough ’n’ Ready, creating the slogan still attached to that coffee today. (See Maxwell House Coffee, Chapter 6.)

Just three years after Syrian immigrant Abe Doumar improvised the first ice cream cone at the St. Louis World’s Fair, he sets up shop at Norfolk, Virginia’s Ocean View Amusement Park. Using the four-waffle iron he invented, Doumar sells 23,000 cones in a single day. Those hand-crafted waffle cones are still served at Doumar’s in downtown Norfolk.

Turnbull Bakeries of Chattanooga begins manufacturing sugar cones.

The Peanut Depot fires up its roasters on warehouse row in Birmingham, Alabama. It has been roasting peanuts ever since—for grocery stores, sports arenas, and tourists’ noses to the source.

In top hat and tails, President Theodore Roosevelt sails into Norfolk, Virginia, to open the Jamestown Exposition in nearby Hampton Roads. Other VIPs at the six-month world’s fair commemorating the 300th anniversary of America’s birth: Mark Twain, Booker T. Washington, William