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Deviled Crab

Baked crab meat mixed with butter, egg yolk, vinegar, spices, and beaten egg, served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Deviled Crab

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the crab

  1. Boil, pick, and chop the crabs.

  2. Mix the dressing well through the crab meat.

  3. Fill the crab shells lightly with the mixture.

  4. Add 2 to 3 tablespoons of melted butter to each shell, and cream if possible.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake at 400°F (200°C) until golden brown.

  2. Serve hot on a garnished dish.

Make the dressing

  1. For the dressing, rub the yolk of the hard boiled egg in 1 tablespoon of melted butter.

  2. Add 1½ tablespoons of vinegar, cayenne, mustard, pepper, and salt to taste.

  3. Stir in the yolk of the beaten egg and add the beaten egg white.

  4. Finally, mix in the chopped white of the hard boiled egg.

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. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Crab + mustardtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together193 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Crab
Forms the main body of the filling and gives the dish its primary flavour.
Egg
Binds the dressing and helps the filling set as it bakes.
Butter
Adds moisture and richness and helps the top turn golden in the oven.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the rich crab and butter.

The step that matters

Fill the shells lightly. Loose filling lets heat reach the centre so the mixture sets evenly. Packing it tight makes a dense mass that heats unevenly and can dry out at the edges before the middle sets.

Swap the mustard

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against crab, butter, egg, 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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