Why it works: Parsley and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Crab Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the broth
Wash the beef in cold water.
Place the beef in a soup kettle and cover with cold water.
Skim the surface as it begins to boil.
Cover and simmer for 4 hours.
Add vegetables and crab
Boil the crabs in water for 15 minutes until the claws come off.
Remove the crabs and extract the meat.
After 3 hours, add parsley, celery, and leeks.
Simmer for 1 more hour.
Remove the beef when there are 3 pints of soup left.
Skim off the fat.
Add the tomatoes and cook slowly for 45 minutes.
Thicken and finish
In a skillet, heat the browned flour and butter.
Stir in a small ladle of soup and boil for a few minutes.
Stir the mixture into the soup 5 minutes before the tomatoes are done.
Add the crab meat and remove from heat as soon as it is hot.
Do not boil after adding crab meat.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,810 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Celery + leektop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,093 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,377 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Parsley + leektop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together759 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,448 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Beef leg
- Gives the broth its meaty flavor and body as it simmers for hours.
- Tomatoes
- Add acidity and sweetness, and body as they cook down into the soup.
- Browned flour
- Thickens the soup slightly and adds a toasted, nutty flavor.
- Butter
- Carries the browned flour and adds richness to the soup.
- Crab meat
- Adds delicate sweet seafood flavor and texture to the finished soup.
The step that matters
Adding the crab meat. Crab meat is delicate and turns tough and rubbery when boiled. Adding it last and removing the pot from heat as soon as it is hot keeps its texture tender and its flavor fresh.
Swap the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, parsley, celery, leek, flour, butter, crab):
- Turnipfits better
- Chivefits better
- Shallotfits better
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, parsley, celery, leek, flour, butter, crab. 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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