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Dressed Crab

A crab dish baked with butter, bread crumbs, lemon rind, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 ↓

Dressed Crab

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the crab

  1. Boil the crab and pick all the meat from it, except for the meat near the head.

  2. Chop the meat finely and place it in a saucepan with all the other ingredients except the brown bread crumbs and the butter.

  3. Scrub the crab shell dry and heat it, greasing it with a little butter.

Bake and serve

  1. Heat the mixture well, then return it to the shell.

  2. Sprinkle the brown bread crumbs over the top and dot with small pieces of butter.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until heated through.

  4. Serve on a dish, garnished with parsley and lemon slices.

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

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

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

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

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 protein and body of the filling.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and bind the filling so it holds together.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the top brown lightly in the oven.
Vinegar
Adds a sharp acidity that brightens the rich crab flavour.

The step that matters

Heating the mixture well before returning it to the shell. The filling must be fully heated through, since the crab is already cooked and the bake mainly reheats it. Heating it thoroughly also lets the bread crumbs absorb moisture and bind the mixture before it goes into the shell.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

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