Crabmeat Cheesecake, Phyllis E. Murphy
There are those for whom a recipe contest is a footnote. Many contestants walk off the experience with a fun story and perhaps a triumph, and their names enshrined into a token cookbook.
For others, however, the competition is a way of life. These food mavens work the circuit of county fairs, recipe contests and cook-offs, vying for recognition of supremacy in their chosen areas of expertise, be it canning, grilling, or baking. I have no doubt that many of these people encountered the same rivals again and again, sizing up one another and striving to come out ahead of the pack.
Phyllis E. Murphy was one to contend with. Suburban Bank Oyster Cooking Contest, 1982: Hangtown Fry, finalist. National Hard Crab Derby, 1984: Tavern Crab Cakes, third place. National Oyster Festival, 1987: Baked Oysters Stuffed with Shrimp and Gruyere, finalist. Hard Crab Derby, 1989: Deep Fried Stuffed Crabs, First Prize. National Oyster Festival, 1989: Cajun Oysters, winner in hors d’oeuvre category.
If Phyllis were an athlete, the Hard Crab Derby of 1985 would be her olympic gold. That year, she swept the contest with a recipe so unusual and memorable that it would be reprinted in newspapers and community cookbooks for years to come. “Even during the cooking contest,” wrote the Salisbury Daily Times, Murphy “was already getting requests from some of the other ten contestants to share her award-winning recipe.”
“I brought out the whole works for the contest,” Murphy told the Times. “I served the finished product on a tray with sterling silver, crystal, antique plates and even champagne. I knew it was going to be a winner… I really am not surprised that I won first place with it.”
In the accompanying photograph, Murphy holds in one hand a plaque with a crab on it. Other contestants have their hands out to help support the platter in her other hand. The platter indeed has a bottle of champagne with a flute beside her award-winning Crab Cheesecake.
Murphy’s recipe amounts to a crab pie, made with a Ritz cracker crust and cooked in a springform pan. The “shock value” of the cheesecake presentation isn’t all it has going for it, however. Murphy spent time and consideration on flavor and texture. After all, based on her many crab and oyster contest placings, the woman knew her way around seafood.
She was born Phyllis Gordon in 1925 in New York City. Before she started grade school, her family moved to New Hampshire. She attended Plymouth Teachers College before getting a master’s degree at University of Pennsylvania.
In 1955, she married Baltimore-born William E. Murphy, Jr. The family lived in Cambridge Maryland, where Phyllis made the most of not only the seafood but the community as well. She taught at Cambridge High School and led a Girl Scout troop. She was a member of her church and of the Dorchester Arts Center. At the Arts Center, she exhibited needlework and taught courses like landscape design. She served as treasurer and coordinated classes taught by others.
She was also a cheerleader for the local arts scene. In 1965 she penned a letter to the Baltimore Sun about the Cambridge Art Show. The month before, she explained, Dorchester Center for the Arts “and the Negro group, Dorchester County Education Association, merged quietly by means of a two-third majority vote… this means that the largest integrated professional group in the county produced without incident a program for an integrated audience. Cambridge does good things. Please acknowledge them.”
In 1975, Phyllis divorced William E. Murphy, Jr., and in 1999 she married Elmer Miller. In the 90s, then going under her maiden name Phyllis Gordon, she served as the culinary editor for the Easton Tidewater Times and taught cooking classes.
Phyllis Gordon Murphy Miller‘s 2006 obituary on legacy.com only scratches the surface of a life lived deeply involved in community, church, and the arts (culinary and otherwise.) “She was an award-winning cook on both the local and regional levels,” it reads.
When the Salisbury Daily Times printed the winning Crab Cheesecake recipe in 1985, they accidentally changed teaspoons to tablespoons. Murphy again wrote a letter to a newspaper, urging that they correct the recipe. “Save my reputation for being the Number 1 cook at the Crisfield Crab Derby,” she insisted. And why shouldn’t she? Phyllis Murphy seems to have known: Crabmeat Cheesecake is the imprint of a champion at the top of her game.
Recipe:
Combine cracker crumbs and butter and line the bottom of a 9-inch spring form pan to make a crust. Bake 10 minutes at 350 degrees. Set aside to cool. To make filling, beat cream cheese, eggs, and 1/4 cup of the sour cream with electric mixer until fluffy. Add the lemon juice, onion and seasonings. Stir in 1 cup regular crabmeat and shred it while removing any shell bits. Mix well. Pour into cooled crust. Bake 50 minutes at 325 degrees or until cake is set. Remove from oven. Run knife around edge of cake, loosening it from pan. Cool on wire rack. Remove sides of pan. Spread the cake with remaining 1/2 cup of sour cream. This cake is a versatile dish. Serve it warm for brunch. When cold, serve it with crackers as a canape to 12 or more. It is absolutely luscious!
- 1 Cup crushed cracker, Ritz
- 2 Tablespoons melted butter
- 2 8oz packages cream cheese
- 3 medium eggs
- .75 Cups sour cream
- 1 Teaspoon lemon juice
- 2 Teaspoons grated onion
- .5 Teaspoon Tabasco sauce
- .125 Teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 Cup regular crab meat
Recipe from Dock ‘n Dine in Dorchester. Long Wharf Lighthouse Committee. 1993.
*note I accidentally had sherry in the above photo; it is from a different recipe
