King Crab Au Gratin, Ruth S. Wood

ByKara
a plate of crab in cream sauce served over brown rice with green beans

I’ve come across a fair share of librarians in my cookbooks. Librarians might be next behind home economists as far as professions of recipe-contributors goes.

Unfortunately, I could find scarce information about Ruth Wood, who contributed this “good luncheon dish” to “Once Upon A Thyme in Charles Village” in 1972. Her name is too common to easily search, but the recipe caption associates her with the Waverly Branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library.

Ruth Wood was born Ruth Staebner in Tennessee in 1920. She grew up in Falls Church, Virginia.
She attended the College of William and Mary before coming to Baltimore to work at the library.
A book-mobile librarian in the 1960s, Wood was promoted to head up the Waverly Branch in 1971, when the library opened at its current location on 33rd street, replacing the “Homestead Branch” on 1442 Gorsuch Avenue.

Vintage yearbook portrait grid showing nine headshots of young men and women from the 1940s era with period hairstyles and formal attire
Ruth Staebner in the William & Mary yearbook, 1940

In the early 1990s, after retiring from the Pratt Library, she moved to Hilton Head, South Carolina. She died in 2011, and is buried with her parents, Standish and Estelle Staebner, in Oakwood Cemetery in Falls Church.

According to the time-stamp on my photos, I made this gratin in January 2021. It might as well have been a lifetime ago. This here post represents my first small steps to climb out of a hole and start posting again. I have some good stories unearthed… and some like this.

It’s not that Ruth doesn’t have a good story. It’s just that the rest of her story is not ours to know. But her recipe is.

Recipe:

King crab, mushrooms, cheese sauce, and breadcrumbs prepared for au gratin recipe with cooking ingredients displayed
  • 2 (6oz) packages Wakefield frozen King Crab
  • 3 Tablespoon butter
  • 3 Tablespoon flour
  • 1 Cup milk
  • .5 Cup light cream
  • .5 Cup chicken broth
  • .75 Cup grated sharp Cheddar cheese
  • 1 4oz can drained, sliced mushrooms
  • 2 Tablespoon grated onion
  • 1 Teaspoon salt
  • .25 Teaspoon paprika
  • 2 Tablespoon white wine (optional)
  • .25 Cup fine dry breadcrumbs

Defrost King Crab. Drain. Melt butter or margarine in saucepan. Stir in flour until smooth. Gradually stir in milk, cream and chicken broth. Cook, stirring constantly, over low heat until sauce is smooth and thick. Add cheese, mushrooms, onion, salt, paprika, and wine. Stir until cheese is melted. Stir in chunks of King Crab. Pour mixture into a well greased 1 1/2 quart casserole. Sprinkle bread crumbs over top. Bake at 400° 10 to 15 minutes or until top is golden brown. Serve over hot cooked rice. Makes 6 servings. (Wakefield Snow Crab may be substituted for King Crab.)
[As you can see, I used Stone crab-Kara.]

Recipe from “Once Upon A Thyme in Charles Village,” 1972, Lucy Eldridge et al.

King crab au gratin with shredded cheese and mushrooms in creamy sauce in skillet
Shredded king crab in creamy cheese sauce with mushrooms, a classic au gratin dish
King Crab Au Gratin creamy sauce with mushrooms and cheese in amber glass baking dish
King crab au gratin with breadcrumb topping in amber glass baking dish on wooden trivet
King Crab Au Gratin with creamy cheese sauce, mushrooms, and breadcrumb topping served with green beans

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