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Crispy Alimasag

A Filipino dish of small crabs coated in flour and spices, then fried until crispy.

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Why it works: Crab and pepper work together. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 922 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Crispy Alimasag

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and clean the small crabs and cut in halves.

Make the batter

  1. Mix all other ingredients in a bowl and add in the crabs.

  2. Heat cooking oil in a pan.

Fry

  1. Fry the crabs until crispy and golden brown.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

644Calories
39 gProtein
8 gFat
98 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 7 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Crab100g cooked97
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Chili1 tsp (2.7g)8
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

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.

  1. Crab + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together922 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Crab + flourtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together384 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (grass, green).

  4. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Crab + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together467 recipes

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

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Small crabs (alimasag)
Main protein, cooked in the batter until the shell turns crisp.
All-purpose flour
Forms the coating that fries up crisp and golden on the crabs.
Egg
Binds the flour and water into a coating that clings to the crabs.

The step that matters

Frying the crabs until crispy and golden brown. The oil must be hot enough before the crabs go in. Hot oil sets the flour coating quickly so it crisps rather than soaking up oil and turning greasy or pale.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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