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Crab Soup

A crab soup made with water, crabs, milk, butter, flour, mace, parsley, cayenne, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Gibson, Marietta Fauntleroy Hollyday, "Mrs. C. H. Gibson." · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Crab Soup

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Crab Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Take one pint water, add a little onion, three or four blades of mace, a little parsley, cayenne pepper and salt. Let them come to a boil.

Finish and serve

  1. Then add one quart picked crabs, one quart rich milk and cream half and half, one-quarter pound butter rubbed into a tablespoonful flour. Stir all into the crab.

  2. Let it come to a good boil and send it hot to the table.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

816Calories
41 gProtein
23 gFat
110 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 10 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Crab100g cooked97
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Macenot 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.

By Gibson, Marietta Fauntleroy Hollyday, "Mrs. C. H. Gibson.". 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Crab + buttertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together812 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Picked crabs
Provide the main protein and sweet, savoury flavour of the soup.
Rich milk
Adds body and creaminess, giving the soup a smooth, rich texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, rounding out the flavour and softening the texture.
Flour
Rubbed into the butter to thicken the soup slightly as it heats.

The step that matters

Bringing the soup to a boil after adding the milk and flour-butter mixture. Milk can scorch or curdle if overheated, but the flour needs a full boil to cook out its raw taste and reach full thickness. Stir steadily and watch closely to keep the soup smooth.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against crab, milk, butter, flour, parsley, 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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