Name: Soft Crabs Fried
Ingredients: soft crabs; coarse sea salt; cayenne pepper; fresh butter; lard; beaten egg; grated bread or finely-rolled and sifted cracker

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Soft Crabs Fried

Ingredients

Directions

Open the soft crabs and remove the sand-bag and spongy substance.
Wash the crabs well and wipe them dry.
Season the crabs inside and out with coarse sea salt and cayenne pepper.
Fry the crabs in a mixture of fresh butter and lard until light brown.
Alternatively, dip the seasoned crabs in beaten egg, then coat with grated bread or finely-rolled and sifted cracker, and fry in deep lard.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Crab + buttertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together812 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Crab + peppertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together922 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Crab + breadtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together387 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).