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Stuffed Crabs

A dish of crab meat mixed with butter, flour, milk, onion, spices, and breadcrumbs, stuffed into crab shells.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,259 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stuffed Crabs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the crabs

  1. Cook the crabs in boiling water for 20 minutes and let them cool.

  2. Cut the crabs in half, clean the shells, and set them aside.

  3. Remove the crab meat and chop it finely.

Make the filling

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Stir in the flour.

  3. Gradually add the milk, stirring constantly until the sauce thickens.

  4. Add the chopped onion and cook until softened.

  5. Season the sauce with cayenne pepper, mustard, spices, and nutmeg.

  6. Add the crab meat to the sauce and cook for 10 minutes.

  7. Stir in the crumbs and thicken the mixture with the beaten egg yolk mixed with water.

  8. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Stuff and serve

  1. Stuff the crab shells with the mixture and serve.

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. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Mustard + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,019 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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 body and sweet, delicate flavour of the filling.
Butter and flour
Form a roux that thickens the milk into a smooth, binding sauce.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving it creaminess and body.
Egg yolk
Enriches and further thickens the filling when gently mixed in.
Crumbs
Absorb liquid and help the filling hold its shape in the shells.

The step that matters

Thickening the egg yolk. Egg yolk can scramble if it meets hot sauce directly. Mixing it with water and stirring it in gently off a strong heat helps it thicken the filling smoothly.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against crab, butter, flour, milk, pepper, mustard, nutmeg. 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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