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Mocked Deviled Crab

A baked crab shell filling made from mashed squash, tuna, eggs, crackers, butter, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Mocked Deviled Crab

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, combine the mashed squash, tuna fish, hard boiled eggs, crumbled crackers, and melted butter. Mix thoroughly and season with salt, pepper, and lemon juice.

Bake and serve

  1. Fill crab shells with the mixture.

  2. Sprinkle the tops with cracker meal and add a teaspoon of butter to each.

  3. Bake in the preheated oven until browned.

  4. Serve hot.

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 + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

  3. Fish + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,889 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked squash
Provides the bulk and moisture that keep the filling soft rather than dry.
Tuna fish
Supplies the main savory, protein-rich flavor of the filling.
Hard boiled eggs
Bind the filling and add richness and body as they hold the mixture together.
Crumbled crackers
Absorb moisture and help the filling hold its shape while adding a light texture.
Melted butter or margarine
Adds fat for richness and helps the topping brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Bake until browned. Baking at high heat sets the egg and binder while browning the buttered cracker topping. Underbaking leaves the filling loose and pale, while overbaking dries it out.

“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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