Why it works: Flour and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,675 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Soft Shell Crabs
Ingredients
Directions
Wash the crabs and remove the gills from both sides.
Dip the crabs in milk, then roll them in flour.
Fry the crabs in plenty of very hot frying fat until golden brown.
Drain the crabs and serve on a folded napkin.
Garnish with a bunch of fresh parsley.
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.
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Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,675 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Crab + parsleytop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together330 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
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Crab + flourtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together384 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (grass, green).
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Crab + milktop 23% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together225 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (crab, milk, flour):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Capersfits better
- Parsleythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against crab, milk, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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