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Deviled Crabs

Deviled crabs are boiled crabs mixed with a cream sauce, hard‑boiled eggs, parsley, and seasonings, then baked with breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Kaufman, Nettie M · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Deviled Crabs

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the crabs and sauce

  1. Boil 12 live crabs for about 20 minutes, adding salt and red pepper to the boiling water.

  2. Make a rich cream sauce with half a pint of cream, a small lump of butter, and enough flour to thicken.

  3. Add the sauce to the crab meat, salt, paprika, and Worcestershire sauce to taste, then add grated hard-boiled eggs and chopped parsley (onion juice may be used or omitted).

Fill and bake

  1. Heap the mixture generously into shells.

  2. Cover lightly with breadcrumbs and a small piece of butter.

  3. Brown in a hot oven for 10 to 15 minutes.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

182Calories
26 gProtein
7 gFat
2 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Crab100g cooked97
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
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 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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Parsley + crabtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together330 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  4. Parsley + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Crab + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together467 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 forms the filling.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add body and a firm, crumbly texture to the filling.
Cream (in the method)
Gives the sauce richness and a smooth, moist texture.
Flour (in the method)
Thickens the cream sauce so it holds the filling together.
Butter (in the method)
Adds richness and helps the topping brown in the oven.
Breadcrumbs (in the method)
Form a crisp, golden topping when browned in the oven.

The step that matters

Thickening the cream sauce. Flour must be stirred into the cream and cooked until it thickens. If it is added in lumps or not cooked enough, the sauce stays thin or grainy, and the filling becomes watery when baked.

“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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