• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

Now a respected restaurant critic, Hines traveled more widely than ever not only to update his dining guide each year but also to research his weekly column syndicated in 100 newspapers. Eventually there was a Duncan Hines hotel guide, even a few cookbooks.

Impressed, a businessman in Raleigh, North Carolina, named Roy Park realized that the Duncan Hines name, synonymous with quality, could sell a lot of food products, and the two men became partners in 1948. First off the assembly line in 1950: Duncan Hines Vanilla Ice Cream.

Six years later Procter & Gamble bought the brand and loaded supermarket shelves with Duncan Hines cake mixes as does the present brand owner, Pinnacle Foods of New Jersey.

Few fans of Duncan Hines cake mixes know who the man was. And his guides, long out of print, are forgotten—except by the people of Bowling Green, Kentucky, who stage a Duncan Hines Festival every August to honor this native son.

* * *

that serves it. Note: According to Louis Osteen, chef-proprietor of Louis’s at Pawleys as well as the author of Louis Osteen’s Charleston Cuisine, “Frozen crab roe, from what Charlestonians call ‘she-crabs,’ is often available in fish markets.” I’ve never seen it and thus do what others have done for years: Substitute coarsely sieved or crumbled hard-cooked egg yolks. They add the necessary richness.

2 tablespoons butter

1 small yellow onion, finely chopped

1 small celery rib, trimmed and finely chopped

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

4 cups (1 quart) milk

1 cup heavy cream

½ teaspoon salt, or to taste

¼ teaspoon black pepper, or to taste

½ pound lump or backfin crabmeat, bits of shell and cartilage removed

½ cup crab roe or 2 large hard-cooked egg yolks, coarsely sieved or crumbled (see Note above)

2 tablespoons Amontillado sherry, or to taste

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1. Melt the butter in a medium-size, heavy, nonreactive saucepan over moderate heat. Add the onion and celery and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes or until soft but not brown.

2. Add the flour and stir until the vegetables are evenly coated. Gradually mix in the milk, cream, salt, and pepper. Bring just to a boil, stirring constantly, then adjust the heat so the mixture barely simmers and cook, uncovered, for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3. Add the crabmeat, roe (if using hard-cooked yolks, add to the bowls just before serving), sherry, and Worcestershire sauce. Bring to a simmer over low heat and cook for about 5 minutes or until the flavors meld, stirring as little as possible. Taste for sherry, salt, and pepper and adjust as needed.

4. Divide the soup among four heated soup bowls (top with hard-cooked yolks, if using) and serve.

CHESAPEAKE CRAB CHOWDER

MAKES 8 SERVINGS

A most unusual soup that begins with slow-simmering veal bones, onions, celery, potatoes, carrots, and bell pepper and ends with a last-minute addition of snowy lumps of crabmeat. I’m ashamed to say that I’ve forgotten the name of the funky little café in the Fell’s Point section of Baltimore where I enjoyed this soup more than twenty-five years ago; perhaps it no longer exists. But I have not forgotten the soup I ordered there one blustery day. This is my approximation of it. Note: Because this soup must chill overnight, begin it the day before you intend to serve it.

4 tablespoons (½ stick) butter

2 large yellow onions, coarsely chopped

3 medium celery ribs, coarsely chopped (include a few leaves)

2 medium carrots, peeled and coarsely chopped

1 small green bell pepper, cored, seeded, and coarsely chopped

1 large whole bay leaf

½ teaspoon dried leaf thyme, crumbled

¼ teaspoon black pepper, or to taste

¼ teaspoon ground hot red pepper (cayenne), or to taste

1 pound veal or beef knuckle bones

4 medium redskin potatoes, peeled and cut into ½-inch dice

3½ cups beef stock or broth

3 cups water

1/3 cup medium pearl barley

One 15-or 16-ounce can crushed tomatoes with their liquid

½ teaspoon salt, or to taste

1 pound