Elise,

Blue crab roe is very fine & when stirred into the soup (a bisque really) it is barely noticeable. If anyone has purchased fresh crabmeat by the pound & seen little pieces of bright orange clumps in it, that’s crab roe. Many people today actually just make the soup without the roe, it’s very good thst way. My Charleston Receipts cookbook has three recipes for She-Crab soup & only one of them calls for crab roe & that is mixed in with the meat. That one also says that if you are unable to obtain the roe to cumble a little hard boiled egg yolk in the bottom of the soup plate. Two other key ingrediants to this soup & to me what makes it good is the use of mace & dry sherry. The sherry is best when each diner is given a small pitcher to add to their own taste at the table.