I have to go to a funeral tommorrow and I offered to do some of the sandwiches. I was asked to do Crab. I can't get fresh crab so I have bought tinned. My question is, What goes with crab? Mayo, Lemon juice, Black pepper, salad? Help please.
All of the above, or add some Thousand Island dressing, not to much though, its an easy cop out, but who wants to be making sandwiches all day
Lemon Mayo, black pepper and salad leaves (not iceberg though). At least that's what the OU gives us in the crab sandwiches we get for lunchtime meetings (at least I think it's crab). They're the only dead cert filling in the range of 'surprise fillings' we sometimes get fed...
Crab is a very delicate flavour and, so as not to swamp it, I'd just go for plain salad: lettuce, cucumber, etc., without dressing. Maybe a dash of lemon or lime, as suggested above, is OK, but no more than that. Bear in mind that for some people crab is an allergy risk, and that for some Jews and Muslims it is also unacceptable. Probably, if many guests are expected, wise to label the sandwiches!
On the topic of catering for funerals, the wake of my mother's was held in a local pub (aforesaid pub mentioned in Charles Dickens 'Great Expectations' btw) who served up a cornucopia of comfort food that my mother used to make for us as kids; shepherds pie, bangers and mash, lasagne, cake, cake and more cake washed down with lashings of tea. Mum would have approved. Who wants a sandwich when you're utterly pissed off with the world? (Not trying to denigrate Paulus excellent crab sandwiches tho' which I'm sure are first class).
It may vary according to the community, but in my experience people don't expect much on such occasions: and if you prepare a sumptuous spread you can almost guarantee that much of it will be left. I can't quite remember what we provided after my mother's funeral, but I think it was a few quiches and pizzas cut into wedges, and a big bowl of rice or couscous salad, something like that. That was all, besides tea, coffee and fruit juice. Most people only nibbled at the food: as Chris says, folks don't have a lot of appetite!
