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Emily Kerner

A baked crabmeat custard served in ramekins with breadcrumbs and lemon garnish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Paidar, Marie, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 41,516 recipes mention both. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Emily Kerner

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Melt one tablespoon butter.

  2. Add one tablespoon flour and stir until smooth.

  3. Add one cup cream and one-fourth cup milk, one-fourth teaspoon salt, pinch cayenne pepper.

  4. Cook until thick, stirring constantly.

  5. Remove from fire, add one yolk and mix well.

  6. Add one cup crabmeat.

Bake and serve

  1. Put into ramekins.

  2. Sprinkle with bread crumbs.

  3. Dot with butter.

  4. Set ramekins in a pan half filled with hot water.

  5. Bake in a moderate oven until crumbs are brown.

  6. Garnish ramekins with sliced lemon.

  7. Sprinkle one-half of each slice with chopped parsley, the other half with paprika.

By Paidar, Marie, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp. 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. See the original page.

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.

  1. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

Butter and flour share little aroma chemistry, yet 124,287 recipes mention both: they likely 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

Butter
Enriches the sauce with fat and adds a rich, savory flavor.
Flour
Thickens the cream into a smooth sauce that holds the crabmeat.
Cream
Forms the body of the sauce, giving it richness and a creamy texture.
Yolk
Enriches and thickens the sauce, helping it set softly when baked.
Crabmeat
Provides the main flavor and texture of the filling.

The step that matters

Cook until thick, stirring constantly. The flour-thickened cream can scorch on the bottom or form lumps if left unattended. Constant stirring keeps it smooth and evenly thickened before the yolk is added, since overheated egg yolk can curdle.

“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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