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Crabs St. Laurent

A creamy crab sauce with Parmesan served over buttered toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Ronald · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Crab and meat work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 448 recipes. Both carry 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine, which smells cocoa, roasted. The science ↓

Crabs St. Laurent

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Melt one tablespoon of butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add the flour and cook, but do not brown.

  3. Slowly add the stock, stirring until the mixture is smooth.

  4. Add the cream and cook until thickened.

  5. Add salt, pepper, and cayenne.

  6. Add the crab meat and grated Parmesan cheese; simmer for a few minutes.

  7. Add the white wine.

Assemble and bake

  1. Spread the mixture over buttered toast cut into squares or circles.

  2. Sprinkle additional grated Parmesan cheese and place a small bit of butter on each piece.

  3. Set in the oven for three minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve hot on a napkin garnished with parsley.

  2. Optional: Substitute boiled halibut for crab meat.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

952Calories
67 gProtein
28 gFat
100 gCarbs

Counts 11 of 12 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 11 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Parmesan Cheese1 oz (28g)110
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Shrimp100g cooked99
Crab100g cooked97
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Meatnot 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. Crab + meattop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together448 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  2. Parmesan cheese + white winetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together697 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

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

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

  4. White wine + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Parmesan cheese + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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 savoury filling and bulk of the topping.
Flour
Thickens the butter and stock into a smooth, stable sauce.
Cream
Adds richness and body, helping the sauce thicken and turn smooth.
Grated parmesan cheese
Adds salty, savoury flavour and browns on top when baked.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour, and helps the toast brown and crisp.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma that brightens the rich sauce.

The step that matters

Add the flour without browning it. Flour must be cooked gently in the butter to remove its raw taste and form a roux that thickens smoothly. Browning changes its flavour and thickening power, and adding stock too fast can cause lumps.

“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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