Small pink shrimps in a thick, pale coral cream sauce heaped on four buttered square crackers on a gold-rimmed white plate, with a cut-glass dish of celery sticks beside it. — Shrimps in a pink cream sauce on hot buttered crackers.

Cosmos Club Shrimps (1914)

Name: Cosmos Club Shrimps
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 12 min
Total time: 17 min
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 12 saltine crackers; 1 tbsp unsalted butter, for the crackers; 1 tbsp unsalted butter, for the sauce; 1 tbsp all-purpose flour; 1 cup heavy cream; 1 pinch cayenne pepper; 1 tsp lemon juice; 3 tbsp tomato sauce; ½ lb cooked peeled small shrimp

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Cosmos Club shrimps, a Midnight Feasts spread of 1914: cooked shrimps heated in a cream sauce tinted pink with tomato and sharpened with cayenne and lemon, on hot buttered crackers.

By The Forgotten MenuPublished Oct 29, 2026

Recipe makes: About 2¼ cups, 3 servings
Prep: 5 min
Cook: 12 min
Total: 17 min

Warm the crackers first, 2 to 3 minutes. The sauce comes to the boil in about 5 minutes and thickens in about 2 more; the shrimps then need about 2.

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Shrimps in a pink cream sauce on hot buttered crackers.

The story behind the recipe

Half a pound of cooked shrimps, a cream sauce tinted pink and a plate of hot buttered crackers make up Cosmos Club shrimps in Midnight Feasts, May E. Southworth’s San Francisco book of chafing-dish suppers (copyright 1914). The dish heads the last of her six suggested spreads, beside an Oliver Twist salad and whole wheat sandwiches.

What made the sauce pink?

Tomato, and only enough of it. Southworth tints the cream with tomato sauce until it is “the color of shrimps,” so sauce and shellfish match on the cracker. The rest of the seasoning is just as light: a pinch of red pepper and a little lemon juice. Her Japanese shrimps, three pages on, go the other way, with a whole cupful of strained tomatoes in a pint of milk and a quarter teaspoon of soda.

The rest of the spread

Southworth’s rule was to set a hearty hot dish beside a simple salad, and the salad she picked for these shrimps is mostly ice. The Oliver Twist salad is celery cut into three-inch straws and curled in ice water, heaped on a cube of ice in the middle of the bowl, with thinly sliced radishes and a mayonnaise made white with extra lemon juice and beaten egg white. All of it is done before anyone sits down, which left the shrimps as the only thing cooked at the table.

Southworth never says which Cosmos Club she meant, or whether any club served the dish.

Making it today

Southworth’s “picked shrimps” come out of the shell already, and since they only “boil up once” in the sauce, they were already cooked; so we use cooked, peeled small shrimp, which need only heating through. Her “teacupful” of cream is the measure most open to reading. An American table of the time gives an answer: The Picayune Creole Cook Book (New Orleans, 1916 edition) states that “one teacupful or one kitchen cupful equals half a pint,” so we use a cup of heavy cream. Common saltines stand in for her crackers. A small saucepan does the chafing dish’s job.

All six of her spreads are pictured in What Did a Chafing-Dish Supper Serve?. The line just above this one on her list is oysters, made here as Chafing-Dish Oysters (1896).

One tablespoonful of butter and one of flour creamed together; add one teacupful of sweet cream, a pinch of red pepper, a little lemon-juice and enough tomato sauce to make it the color of shrimps. ...

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Ingredients

For about 2¼ cups, 3 servings. Quantities are shown as written.

Quantities as written here, for about 2¼ cups, 3 servings.

Saltine crackers12
Unsalted butter, for the crackers1 tbsp
Unsalted butter, for the sauce1 tbsp
All-purpose flour1 tbsp
Heavy cream1 cup
Cayenne pepper1 pinch
Lemon juice1 tsp
Tomato sauce3 tbsp
Cooked peeled small shrimp0.5 lb

Ingredients as written here

12 saltine crackers
1 tbsp unsalted butter, for the crackers
1 tbsp unsalted butter, for the sauce
1 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 cup heavy cream
1 pinch cayenne pepper
1 tsp lemon juice
3 tbsp tomato sauce
½ lb cooked peeled small shrimp

Equipment

10-inch skillet, for the crackers
Small heavy saucepan or chafing dish
Instant-read thermometer

Instructions

Spread the saltine crackers thinly with the butter for the crackers. Lay them buttered side up in the dry skillet over low heat for 2 to 3 minutes, until hot, then move them to warm plates.
In the cold saucepan, work the butter for the sauce and the all-purpose flour together with a fork into a smooth paste.
Stir in the heavy cream a little at a time until smooth, then the cayenne pepper and lemon juice.
Add the tomato sauce a little at a time, stirring, until the sauce turns the pale coral pink of cooked shrimp; you may not need all of it.
Set the pan over medium heat and bring the sauce to a boil, stirring all the time. Let it bubble for about 2 minutes, until it is thick enough to coat the spoon.
Add the cooked peeled small shrimp, bring the sauce back to the boil once, stirring, and keep it bubbling gently for about 2 minutes, until the shrimp are hot through and read 165°F (74°C).
Spoon the shrimp and sauce over the hot crackers and serve at once.

Nutrition

480calories per serving

Recipe makes: About 2¼ cups, 3 servings
Servings: 3

Estimated per serving (3) from USDA FoodData Central values for cooked shrimp, heavy cream, butter, flour, canned tomato sauce and saltine crackers.

Recipe notes

When adjusting quantities

Southworth’s half pound of shrimps. Keep the butter, flour and cream in step with the shrimps; add the tomato sauce by eye.

Notes

Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the servings.

Southworth adds no salt; the crackers bring some, and a pinch can go into the sauce. Her cream is “sweet cream,” fresh cream as against sour; we use heavy cream for it, saltines, no more than 3 tablespoons of tomato sauce, and a thermometer reading that follows USDA guidance for reheating cooked food. Shrimp is a common shellfish allergen. Chill leftovers within 2 hours and reheat them to 165°F (74°C).

Scaling changes the ingredients only; pan sizes and cooking times need their own judgment. To adapt this recipe further, try the recipe tool at TuneMyRecipe (opens in a new tab), our sister site.