Name: Crab and Shrimp Casserole
Ingredients: 1 pound crabmeat; 2 cups cooked shrimp; 1 cup chopped celery; ½ teaspoon salt; ½ bottle horseradish sauce; ¾ cup mayonnaise; ½ teaspoon worcestershire sauce; 1 small white onion grated; 1½ cups buttered bread crumbs

Why it works: Shrimp and horseradish work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and 190 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-methylbutyraldehyde, which smells malty, chocolate. The science ↓

The recipe

Oven350°F

Time30 minutes

Ingredients

Contains: egg, wheat, soy, fish, shellfish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Mix all ingredients together.
Bake in a greased casserole dish for 30 minutes at 350°F.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Shrimp + horseradishtop 12% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together190 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Celery + oniontop 5% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together18,506 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Celery + horseradishtop 5% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together832 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Horseradish + oniontop 5% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together1,782 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Horseradish + saucetop 6% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together775 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Crabmeat: Forms the main body of the casserole and provides its sweet seafood flavour.
Cooked shrimp: Adds extra seafood substance and a tender bite throughout the casserole.
Mayonnaise: Adds fat and moisture, keeping the filling creamy and rich while it bakes.
Buttered bread crumbs: Form a crisp, golden topping as they brown in the oven.
Horseradish sauce: Adds sharp, pungent heat that balances the richness of the mayonnaise.

Flavor stand-ins for the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shrimp, horseradish, sauce, onion, bread):

Garlicbetter flavor fit
Capersbetter flavor fit
Celerythe original
Gingerabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against shrimp, horseradish, sauce, onion, bread. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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.