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National Grocery Co

A chilled appetizer of crab meat mixed with tomato catsup, oyster sauce, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, salt, and pepper, served in cocktail glasses with ice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Seattle (Wash.). Congregation Temple de Hirsch. Ladies' Auxiliary · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

National Grocery Co

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Add to the meat of two crabs a sauce made of tomato catsup, salt, pepper, oyster cocktail sauce, a little Worcestershire sauce and lemon juice.

  2. Serve in individual cocktail glasses surrounded by cracked ice.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

622Calories
48 gProtein
35 gFat
32 gCarbs

Counts 13 of 15 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 13 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Crab100g cooked97
Oyster6 medium (84g)81
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Mushroom1/2 cup sliced (35g)15
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Mustard1 tsp (5g) yellow3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Saucenot in our table0
Cocktailnot 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 Seattle (Wash.). Congregation Temple de Hirsch. Ladies' Auxiliary. 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,719 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  5. Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Crab meat
Provides the main flesh and sweet, delicate seafood flavour of the cocktail.
Tomato catsup
Adds sweetness, acidity and a tangy base to the sauce.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the sweetness of the tomato.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, tomato, sauce, mushroom, cream, milk, crab):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Onionfits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, tomato, sauce, mushroom, cream, milk, crab. 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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