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Crab a LA Creole

Crab à la Créole is a crab dish simmered in a tomato sauce with butter, flour, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Kaufman, Nettie M · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,633 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Crab a LA Creole

Ingredients

Directions

Season the crabs

  1. Add 1 saltspoon sugar to the crabs.

  2. Add 1 tablespoon flour to the crabs.

  3. Add 1 small onion and 1 tablespoon tomato catsup to the crabs.

  4. Add pepper and 1 cup hot water to the crabs.

  5. Add 1 tablespoon fresh butter and 1 can tomatoes to the crabs, then add cayenne pepper.

Cook the crab

  1. Boil the crabs in salt water until they turn red, then remove them from the heat, carefully pick out the meat, and set it aside.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, brown the onion in the butter; stir in the flour, add the hot water and tomatoes; season; add the sugar and catsup.

  2. Boil the mixture until it thickens.

  3. Add the crab meat and cook for a few minutes.

Serve

  1. Line a platter with slices of toast bread and pour the mixture over.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

672Calories
15 gProtein
13 gFat
122 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Waternot 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 Kaufman, Nettie M. 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. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Flour and butter 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

Flour
Thickens the sauce as its starch swells when heated with the liquid.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavor when the onion is browned in it.
Tomato catsup
Adds sweetness and acidity that balance the savory sauce.
Onion
Provides aroma and savory depth once browned in butter.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture until it thickens. Flour only thickens fully when the liquid reaches a boil, and the starch needs to cook through to lose its raw, pasty taste. Stopping early leaves a thin, floury sauce.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, sugar, onion):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Okrafits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, onion. 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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