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Crab Omelet

A savory omelet made with crab meat, ham, parsley, onion, eggs, lard, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 25,843 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Crab Omelet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the crabs and remove the meat from the shells.

  2. Finely chop the onion and fry it until brown, then remove it from the pan.

  3. Beat the eggs in a bowl until well mixed.

  4. Finely chop the ham and parsley, then add them to the eggs.

Cook and serve

  1. Heat the lard in the pan, then add the crab meat and egg mixture, stirring until heated through.

  2. Just before removing from heat, stir in the butter.

  3. Roll the mixture like an omelet 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 + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Crab + buttertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together812 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Crab + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together311 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

  4. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set when heated, binding the crab and ham into a cohesive omelette.
Crabs
Provide the main protein and sweet, delicate flavor of the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky texture when stirred in off the heat.
Lard
Fat for frying that gives browning and a savory flavor to the pan.
Onion
Browned first to add sweetness and savory depth to the filling.

The step that matters

Stir in the butter just before removing from heat. Butter added off the heat emulsifies smoothly into the eggs, keeping the omelette creamy; if added too early it can brown, separate, or dry out the mixture.

Swap the parsley

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against crab, onion, egg, ham, butter. 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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