Name: Del Monte Crab
Ingredients: 2 green peppers, chopped finely; 1 onion, chopped finely; 2 cups tomatoes, chopped; 1 cup cream; 1 cup crab meat, finely chopped; 4 slices of bread, toasted

Why it works: Pepper and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Del Monte Crab

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

Fry the chopped green peppers and onion in a pan until light brown.
Add the chopped tomatoes and bring to a boil, then strain the mixture.
Stir in the cream and finely chopped crab, heating through.

Serve

Serve the mixture over the toasted bread on a hot platter.
Reserve a little tomato sauce to pour over the top before serving.

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.

Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Crab + meattop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together448 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).
Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,633 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,013 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Cream + crabtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together317 recipes

Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Green peppers: Add savory flavor and aroma as they soften and brown in the pan.
Onion: Builds a savory base of aroma and sweetness as it fries.
Tomatoes: Provide the liquid and acidity that form the sauce.
Cream: Adds richness and a smooth, creamy texture to the sauce.
Crab meat: Supplies the main flavor and tender texture of the dish.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, onion, cream, crab, meat, bread):

Potatofits better
Capsicumfits better
Mustardfits better
Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, onion, cream, crab, meat, bread. 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.