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Crab Stew

A Belizean soup made with crabs, plantains, pig's tail, onion, seasonings, and coconut milk.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Crab Stew

Time15–20 minutes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the crabs

  1. Place crabs in hot boiling water to kill them.

  2. Remove crabs from water with a wire or long spoon; disjoin legs from body and crush the large claws.

  3. Add season.

Make the stew

  1. Boil pigtail and green plantain until tender.

  2. Meanwhile, grate coconut and squeeze, leaving 2 tablespoons of milk for matilda foot.

  3. Add seasons to crab in boiling water.

  4. Add matilda foot to soup and cook for another 15–20 minutes.

  5. Lastly, add coconut milk, taste, and serve hot.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

438Calories
23 gProtein
29 gFat
23 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 9 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Coconut1/2 cup shredded (40g)283
Crab100g cooked97
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Thyme1 tsp dried (1.4g)4
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Plantainnot in our table0
Saucenot 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. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Thyme + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,608 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Pepper + garlictop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,090 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Crabs
Provide the main protein and sweet, briny flavor of the stew.
Green plantain
Starchy pieces that soften and thicken the broth as they cook.
Coconut milk
Adds richness, body and a creamy moisture to the finished stew.
Pig's tail
Contributes savory depth and gelatin-rich body to the broth.
Onion
Builds the aromatic base of flavor in the stew.

The step that matters

Add the coconut milk last. Coconut milk is rich in fat and can split or curdle if boiled hard for a long time, so it is added at the end and heated gently to keep the stew smooth and creamy.

Swap the coconut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (crab, onion, sauce, pepper, thyme, garlic, milk):

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Avocadofits better
  4. Coconutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against crab, onion, sauce, pepper, thyme, garlic, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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