Name: Scalloped Ckab
Ingredients: crab meat from 1 crab; ⅓ cup grated bread crumbs; 4 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces; ¼ teaspoon black pepper; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; a dust of grated nutmeg; 2 teaspoons vinegar or lemon juice; parsley for garnish

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 Ckab

Ingredients

crab meat from 1 crab
⅓ cup grated bread crumbs
4 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces
¼ teaspoon black pepper
¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt
a dust of grated nutmeg
2 teaspoons vinegar or lemon juice
parsley for garnish

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Mix the crab meat with the bread crumbs, butter, pepper, salt, nutmeg, and vinegar or lemon juice.
Clean the bottom shell of the crab and fill it with the mixture.
Pour any remaining mixture into scallop shells or small tins.

Bake and serve

Place the filled shells in a 350°F (175°C) oven until heated through and slightly browned.
Serve on a dish covered with a napkin, with the crab shell in the center and 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.

Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,062 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together13,015 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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: Provides the main flavor and the bulk of the filling.
Bread crumbs: Absorb the butter and juices, giving the filling body and a light texture.
Butter: Adds richness and moisture, and helps the top brown in the oven.
Vinegar or lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the sweet flavor of the crab.

The step that matters

Place the filled shells in a 350°F (175°C) oven until heated through and slightly browned.. Crab is already cooked, so the goal is only to heat it through and lightly brown the surface. Overbaking dries the bread crumbs and toughens the delicate crab meat.

Swap the nutmeg

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

Thymefits better
Tarragonfits better
Garlicfits about as well
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.