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Deviled Crabs

Crab meat mixed with a cream, butter and egg yolk sauce, filled into shells, coated and fried or browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Ronald · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Deviled Crabs

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Put the cream into a double boiler.

  2. When the cream is scalded, add the flour and butter, which have been rubbed together.

  3. Stir until smooth and thickened.

  4. Add the mashed egg yolks, the seasoning, and the crab meat. Mix well together, and taste to see if more seasoning is needed.

Fill and coat the shells

  1. Have the shells carefully washed and dried.

  2. Fill the shells with the mixture, rounding it well on top and pressing it close to the edges of the shells so that none of the fat may enter in frying.

  3. Smooth the top, and let stand until cold.

  4. Beat one egg with one tablespoonful of water. Holding a shell over this, baste it with the egg, letting it run over the whole top, including the shell.

  5. Sprinkle with white bread crumbs.

Fry or bake

  1. Put two at a time into a frying-basket, and immerse in very hot fat until colored, about a minute.

  2. Alternatively, brown in the oven, omitting the egg and placing a few pieces of butter on top of the crumbs.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

802Calories
40 gProtein
25 gFat
101 gCarbs

Counts 9 of 10 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Crab100g cooked97
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
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 Mary Ronald. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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 + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Cream + crabtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together317 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

  4. Butter + crabtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together812 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

Cream
Forms the smooth, thickened base that holds the filling together.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that helps the sauce stay smooth and moist.
Flour
Thickens the cream into a stable sauce that binds the crab meat.
Egg yolks
Enrich and bind the filling, helping it set firm when cold.
Crab meat
Provides the main filling and its flavour.
Egg
Beaten and brushed on top, it helps the crumbs brown and adhere.

The step that matters

Pressing the filling into the shells. The filling must be rounded and pressed tight to the shell edges, leaving no gaps, so that hot fat cannot seep in and make the crabs greasy or cause the filling to break apart during frying.

“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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