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Deviled or Baked Crabs

Crabs are boiled, minced, mixed with breadcrumbs, celery, garlic, onion, sage, spices, pepper, salt, then placed in shells and baked with cracker crumbs and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By New Orleans Federation of Clubs · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Deviled or Baked Crabs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Boil half a dozen crabs.

  2. Mince the boiled crabs.

  3. Mix breadcrumbs, small portion celery, garlic, onion, sage, spices, pepper, and salt to taste.

  4. Combine minced crabs with the mixture.

Bake and finish

  1. Place the mixture in crab shells.

  2. Cover the tops with cracker crumbs and bits of butter.

  3. Bake the shells.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

105Calories
19 gProtein
2 gFat
2 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Crab100g cooked97
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Sage1 tsp ground (0.7g)2
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

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

By New Orleans Federation of Clubs. 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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Crab + sagetop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Crabs
Provide the main meat that gives the filling its flavour and body.
Breadcrumbs (in the method)
Absorb moisture and bind the filling so it holds together when baked.
Butter (in the method)
Adds fat for richness and helps the cracker topping brown in the oven.

Swap the sage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (crab, pepper):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Sagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against crab, pepper. 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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