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Devilled Crab

A crab mixture baked in shells with breadcrumbs and butter.

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

Devilled Crab

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Mix 1 tablespoon of the crumbs with the crab meat, egg yolks, mustard, Cayenne pepper, salt, and drawn butter.

  2. Fill scallop shells, large clam shells, or small patty pans with the mixture.

  3. Sift remaining crumbs over the top.

Bake

  1. Heat in a 400°F (200°C) oven until slightly browned.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Crab + buttertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together812 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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 and provides its flavour.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the crab mixture together.
Drawn butter
Adds fat and moisture, keeping the filling tender as it heats.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and form a lightly browned crust on top.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich crab and butter.

The step that matters

Heat in a 400°F (200°C) oven until slightly browned. Baking only until the top is lightly browned keeps the butter-rich filling moist and prevents the egg yolks from overcooking and turning dry or grainy.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Spinachfits about as well
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against crab, meat, bread, egg, lemon, pepper, butter. 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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