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Scalloped Crab

A baked crab meat mixture served in crab shells and scallop shells, garnished with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

Scalloped Crab

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Pick out all the meat from the crab and mix it thoroughly.

  2. Add ⅓ cup of bread crumbs, ⅓ cup of butter in small pieces, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and vinegar or lemon juice to the crab meat. Mix everything together evenly.

Fill and bake

  1. Clean the bottom shell of the crab and fill it with the mixture.

  2. Place any remaining mixture into scallop shells or tins.

  3. Set them in a 350°F (175°C) oven until heated through and slightly browned.

Serve

  1. Serve on a dish covered with a napkin, with the crab shell in the middle and the scallop shells around it, garnished with parsley.

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.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  3. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  5. Crab + meattop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together448 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Crab meat
Forms the main body of the dish, providing the savory filling.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help bind the filling so it holds its shape.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the top brown in the oven.
Vinegar or lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the rich crab and butter.

The step that matters

Baking until heated through and slightly browned. Overbaking dries out the delicate crab meat and toughens it, while underbaking leaves the filling cold in the centre. Watching for a light browning on top signals that the filling is hot enough.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (crab, meat, bread, butter, pepper, vinegar, parsley):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Garlicfits about as well
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against crab, meat, bread, butter, pepper, vinegar, parsley. 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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