It ain’t the holidays in my family without a seafood dip. My mother picked up a recipe for a shrimp mold when we lived in Germany in the early 1970s. Our recipe is at least 40 years old, I think, and we’ve been making it for holidays and special occasions ever since Germany. The good thing about our recipe for Holiday Seafood Spread is that you can substitute crab for shrimp. I’ve never tried fish or clams, but I’m sure these would all be good in the dish. I swap the shrimp for crab most of the time because we like the crab the best. The shrimp is just as good. I wouldn’t turn it down.
Cooks Notes On Making Holiday Seafood Spread
The original recipe calls for grated onion. Have you ever tried to grate an onion? It takes too long to grate and days to pick the onion out of the grater. I thinly slice the onion and the celery so that it softens faster.
If using canned shrimp or crab, make sure you drain it well. If not, your spread will be runny.
Make sure the cream cheese is at room temperature. It will blend into the rest of the mix much easier.
If you want to shape and remove the spread from a mold and turn it out on a platter before serving, make sure you butter the dish first. If not, the spread will stick to the mold.

Holiday Seafood Spread
Ingredients
- 1 envelope unflavored gelatin
- 1/2 cup cream of mushroom soup
- 8 ounce package cream cheese
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1/2 cup finely chopped onion
- 1/2 cup finely chopped celery
- 1-1/2 cups crab meat or shrimp
- salt & pepper
- unsalted butter
Instructions
- Butter the inside of a Jello mold. Set aside.
- Dissolve gelatin in 1/8 cup of water.
- Heat soup until warm, about 2 or 3 minutes. Remove from heat; add dissolved gelatin and cream cheese. Stir until smooth.
- Add remaining ingredients, and add salt and pepper as desired. Mix well. Pour mixture into a well-buttered mold or bowl. Refrigerate for six hours or longer.
- To remove the spread from the mold, flip the mold or bowl upside down and rest on a serving dish. The mold will separate from the spread in a minute or so. Serve with crackers.
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I love anything seafood!!
Tania
We love a good seafood dip, especially at the holidays. We’ll have to try yours!
This sounds like a delicious recipe and so great you can swap in your seafood of choice!
Best,
Kelly
I love seafood spread, and probably would like the crab the best too!