Elaine Heaps' Award Winning Vegetable Crab Soup

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Submitted by Jennifer Raulin, Chesapeake & Coastal Service, Maryland Department of Natural Resources

My grandmother, Elaine Heaps, or Marme, as we called her, won the first crab soup cook off at the Maryland Seafood Festival in 1988, beating out several local restaurants and other competitors. She was the only individual that has ever won the crab soup cookoff as after that year the contest was only open to restaurants. Family lore has it that it was because the restaurants were salty about losing to an old lady, but it was probably most likely due to health code regulations. Marme was awarded a beautiful silver bowl and the recipe was included in the publication, “Why is Your Crab Soup An Endangered Dish?: Recipes & Interesting Information About the Chesapeake Bay.”

The accolades did not stop there. In 2004, the year Marme died, my mother entered The Capital Gazette's poetry contest and won. The title of the poem? "Mom's Crab Soup." My mother, a former English teacher who has a way with words, fittingly won tickets to that year's Maryland Seafood Festival and her poem was published in the newspaper.

Now, as a 12 year employee of DNR, I could not think of a better way than to keep my grandmother's crab soup legacy alive than to include it in the upcoming cookbook.

​​Directions​

For the broth:

• 2 beef shin bones (3" each)
• 2 lbs round steak, trimmed, cut into 1" pieces
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 2 teaspoons pepper
• 1 cupped handful of parsley
• 2 or 3 pinches of thyme (edited by my mother to about 1/2 tablespoon)
• Cold water to cover, about 3" (edited by my mother to about 3 quarts)

Boil for 1 1/2 hours.

For the soup:
Add vegetables to the broth in the following stages:

• Stage 1:
• 3 large onions chopped
• 1 bunch celery cut, with leaves included
• 1 bunch carrots sliced
• 1 lg. can tomatoes, mashed
• 1/2 cup washed barley

Cover with water and simmer for 1 hour.

• Stage 2:
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• string beans, cut in 1 in. length
• lima beans
• peas
• 3-4 large potatoes, cubed
• 1/2 small head of cabbage, sliced thin (edited by my mother- it's OK to cheat and buy a bag!)

Add more water to cover and simmer for 1 hour. After an hour add: 1 tablespoon Old Bay seasoning. Simmer for 10-15 minutes. Turn off soup and let it sit for 2-3 hours.

• Stage 3:
• To the pot, add:
• 2 lbs. regular crabmeat, picked
• 1 lb. claw meat (for sweetness), picked
• 3 large ears local corn, cut from the cob

Add water to ensure all ingredients are covered, bring to boil and simmer.