Name: Fresh Crabmeat and Green Peppers
Ingredients: 1 pint crabmeat; 2 green peppers; ½ pint white sauce (see below); 1 tablespoon butter; 1 tablespoon flour; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; ⅛ teaspoon pepper; 1 cup hot milk; ½ cup cream

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 ↓

Fresh Crabmeat and Green Peppers

Ingredients

Directions

Make the white sauce

Melt the butter in a saucepan.
Remove from heat and mix in the flour.
Cook until it bubbles, then add the hot milk and cream, stirring constantly until it thickens.

Finish and serve

Add the chopped green peppers and crabmeat, season with salt and pepper, and serve on toast.

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,787 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 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

Crabmeat: Provides the main protein and flavor of the dish.
Butter: Adds fat and richness to the base of the white sauce.
Flour: Thickens the white sauce when cooked with the butter and liquid.
Milk: Forms the liquid of the white sauce, which thickens as it heats.
Cream: Adds richness and body to the white sauce.

The step that matters

Cook the flour and butter until it bubbles, then add the liquid slowly. Stirring constantly while the hot milk and cream are added keeps the flour dispersed, so the sauce thickens smoothly without 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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Fresh Crabmeat and Green Peppers