Crab Louie salad, also known as Crab Louis salad or the King of Salads, is a type of

salad A salad is a dish consisting of mixed, mostly natural ingredients with at least one raw ingredient. They are typically served at room temperature or chilled, though some can be served warm. Condiments and salad dressings, which exist in a va ...

featuring

crab Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" (abdomen) ( el, βραχύς , translit=brachys = short, / = tail), usually hidden entirely under the thorax. They live in all th ...

meat. The recipe dates back to the early 1900s and originates on the

West Coast of the United States The West Coast of the United States, also known as the Pacific Coast, Pacific states, and the western seaboard, is the coastline along which the Western United States meets the North Pacific Ocean. The term typically refers to the contiguous U.S ...

History

The exact origins of the dish are uncertain, but it is known that Crab Louie was being served in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

, at Solari's, as early as 1914. A recipe for Crab Louie exists from this date in ''Bohemian San Francisco'' by Clarence E. Edwords, and for a similar "Crabmeat a la Louise" salad in the 1910 edition of a cookbook by Victor Hirtzler, head chef of the city's St. Francis Hotel. Another early recipe is found in ''The Neighborhood Cook Book'', compiled by the Portland Council of Jewish Women in 1912. San Francisco's Bergez-Frank's Old Poodle Dog restaurant menu included "Crab Leg à la Louis (special)" in 1908, named for the chef Louis Coutard who died in May 1908. By some accounts it was created by entrepreneur Louis Davenport, founder of the Davenport Hotel in

Spokane, Washington Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the ...

. Davenport spent his early years in San Francisco before moving to Spokane Falls. He would use crab imported from Seattle to be offered in his hotel. His recipe pre-dates 1914 and can be found in hotel historical menus. The popularity of Crab Louie has diminished since its heyday in the early to mid-1900s, but it can still be found on the menu of some hotels and restaurants on the West Coast, including the Palace Hotel in San Francisco and the Davenport Hotel.

Ingredients

The main ingredient for Crab Louie, as the name suggests, is crab meat. The preferred crab is

Dungeness Crab The Dungeness crab (''Metacarcinus magister'') is a species of crab inhabiting eelgrass beds and water bottoms along the west coast of North America. It typically grows to across the carapace and is a popular seafood. Its common name comes from ...

, but other crab meat can be substituted, including cheaper imitation crab meat. Although variations of the recipe exist, an essential ingredient is a creamy dressing such as

Louis dressing Louis dressing is a salad dressing based on mayonnaise, to which red chili sauce, minced green onions, and minced green chili peppers have been added. It is commonly used as a dressing for salads featuring seafood, such as a crab ( Crab Louis ...

, Thousand Island dressing or

Green goddess dressing Green goddess is a salad dressing, typically containing mayonnaise, sour cream, chervil, chives, anchovy, tarragon, lemon juice, and pepper. History The dressing is named for its tint. The most accepted theory regarding its origins points to th ...

. This dressing is either served on the side or mixed with the other ingredients, depending on which recipe is used. A typical Crab Louie salad consists of: *

Crab Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" (abdomen) ( el, βραχύς , translit=brachys = short, / = tail), usually hidden entirely under the thorax. They live in all th ...

meat * Hard boiled eggs *

Tomato The tomato is the edible berry of the plant ''Solanum lycopersicum'', commonly known as the tomato plant. The species originated in western South America, Mexico, and Central America. The Mexican Nahuatl word gave rise to the Spanish word ...

Asparagus Asparagus, or garden asparagus, folk name sparrow grass, scientific name ''Asparagus officinalis'', is a perennial flowering plant species in the genus '' Asparagus''. Its young shoots are used as a spring vegetable. It was once classified in ...

* a bed of Iceberg lettuce *

, based on

mayonnaise Mayonnaise (; ), colloquially referred to as "mayo" , is a thick, cold, and creamy sauce or dressing commonly used on sandwiches, hamburgers, composed salads, and French fries. It also forms the base for various other sauces, such as tarta ...

and chili sauce Other ingredients such as

olives The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'', meaning 'European olive' in Latin, is a species of small tree or shrub in the family Oleaceae, found traditionally in the Mediterranean Basin. When in shrub form, it is known as ''Olea europaea'' 'M ...

and

green onions "Green Onions" is an instrumental composition recorded in 1962 by Booker T. & the M.G.'s. Described as "one of the most popular instrumental rock and soul songs ever" and as one of "the most popular R&B instrumentals of its era", the tune is a ...

have also been listed in some recipes. A variation called the Lobster Louie is prepared the same way, but substitutes lobster instead of crab meat.

References

{{Salads Cuisine of the San Francisco Bay Area American salads American seafood dishes

History

Ingredients

See also

References