Name: Crawfish, Lobsters, and Sea-crabs
Ingredients: crawfish; lobsters; sea-crabs; water; vinegar; coarse sea salt; parsley

Why it works: Lobster and crab work together. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 196 recipes. Both carry octanal, which smells fat, soap. The science ↓

Crawfish, Lobsters, and Sea-crabs

Ingredients

Directions

Boil water and vinegar in a large pot.
Add plenty of coarse sea salt.
Cook the crawfish, lobsters, and sea-crabs for 30 minutes or until they turn red.
Remove from heat and let them cool.
Arrange on a plate and garnish with sprigs of parsley.
Serve lobster with oil and vinegar.

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.

Lobster + crabtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together196 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
Vinegar + parsleytop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,477 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Crab + parsleytop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together330 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Crab + vinegartop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together302 recipes

Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).
Lobster + parsleytop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together890 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).