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Deviled Crabs

Deviled Crabs are boiled crabs stuffed with a cream, flour, and egg yolk mixture, then baked or fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

Deviled Crabs

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 the crabs

  1. Place the crabs in warm water and add the salt.

  2. Boil for 30 minutes.

  3. Drain the crabs, break off the claws, and separate the shells.

  4. Remove the spongy fingers and stomach, then pick out all the crab meat.

Make the filling

  1. Bring the cream to a boil in a saucepan.

  2. Rub the butter and flour together in a separate bowl, then add the butter-flour mixture to the boiling cream.

  3. Stir and cook for 2 minutes, then remove from heat.

  4. Mix in the crab meat, mashed egg yolks, parsley, nutmeg, salt, and cayenne.

Fill and bake

  1. Clean the upper shells of the crabs and fill them with the mixture.

  2. Brush the tops with beaten egg and cover with bread crumbs.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until browned, or fry in hot oil until golden.

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

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

  2. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  3. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  4. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Crab meat
Forms the bulk of the filling and provides the main flavour.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, binding the filling into a creamy mixture.
Flour
Thickens the boiling cream into a smooth sauce that holds the filling together.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the filling as it cooks.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour, and is worked with flour to make the thickener.

The step that matters

Thickening the cream with the butter-flour mixture. Adding the butter-flour paste to boiling cream and stirring keeps it smooth; if it is added too cold or not stirred, lumps form and the filling sets unevenly.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (crab, cream, flour, nutmeg, egg, butter, pepper):

  1. Cinnamonfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Capersfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against crab, cream, flour, nutmeg, egg, butter, 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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