Shrimp Mousse at Calvary Church’s Calvary Waffle Shop
I’ve made a version of shrimp mousse, one of the many signature dishes served during Lent at Calvary Waffle Shop at Calvary Episcopal Church. I substituted commercial mayonnaise — Hellmann’s — for the mayonnaise made at the Waffle Shop. And I used canned shrimp.
The result? My dish didn’t taste like Calvary’s. I discovered the mayonnaise has to be the one made from scratch at the Waffle Shop.
I found t he sh rimp mousse recipe, which includes cream cheese and tomato soup, in an outof-print recipe pamphlet, “The Shrimp Mousse and other Waffle Shop Recipes.” The cover illustration shows a moose wearing an apron, lipstick and a bell pepper earring.
I’m a congealed salad lover, so I love Waff le Shop’s shrimp mousse, which you can order by itself on a lettuce leaf and topped with a sprig of parsley as a special on Tuesdays and Thursdays or during the week with the Calvary Salad Plate, which also includes tomato aspic, chicken salad and a pear with cottage cheese.
During a recent lunch, I sat next to singer-songwriter John Kilzer, who spoke during the Lenten Preaching Series, which coincides with the Waffle Shop. Kilzer doesn’t like shrimp, but I persuaded him to try a bite of my shrimp mousse. “It’s exotic,” he said. “It’s li ke having a seafood dessert. I liked it.”
As far as I know, shrimp mousse has been around as long as the Waffle Shop. “It just came handed down over the years,” said Jane Barton, a retired Waffle Shop volunteer. “The Waffle Shop’s only been there 83 years.”
And, she said, “I worked there for 53 years. I was only in the kitchen for 45 years. I remember you used to come down there and enjoy shrimp mousse.”
Barton was horrified to learn I used Hellmann’s mayonnaise when I made mine at home. “I’ve been making shrimp mousse forever and ever,” she said. “The secret of the mousse is the mayonnaise.”