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Crab Omelette

A savory omelette made with crab, eggs, butter, vinegar, cayenne, parsley, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Crab Omelette

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Break the eggs into a bowl, season with salt and pepper, and beat with a fork.

  2. Melt the butter in an oval-shaped pan over medium heat.

Cook and serve

  1. Pour the beaten eggs into the pan and stir lightly with a fork.

  2. Add the crab flesh, vinegar, additional salt, cayenne, and parsley.

  3. When the omelette is half set, toss or turn it until fully set.

  4. Once it turns pale gold, turn it out onto a dish and serve immediately.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Butter + crabtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together812 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  4. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Pepper + crabtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together922 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

Eggs
Set into a tender structure as they cook, forming the body of the omelette.
Butter
Adds richness and helps prevent sticking while the eggs cook.
Crab flesh
Provides the main savoury filling and sweet, delicate seafood flavour.
Vinegar
Adds a touch of acidity that brightens the flavour of the eggs and crab.

The step that matters

Stirring and turning the omelette while it sets. Egg proteins set quickly over heat. Stirring lightly keeps curds soft and even, and turning it while still slightly loose avoids overcooking and toughening the eggs.

Swap the parsley

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, pepper, butter, crab, vinegar. 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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