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Devilled Crabs

A baked crab dish with a seasoned egg and milk filling topped with breadcrumbs and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Devilled Crabs

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the crabs

  1. Boil the crabs in water for 30 minutes.

  2. Break open the crab shells and discard the poisonous parts.

  3. Carefully pick the meat from the inner shell and save the coral-colored shells.

Make the dressing

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter and mix in the flour over heat until combined.

  2. Add the beaten eggs and milk, then season with cayenne pepper and salt.

  3. Mix the dressing with the crab meat and fill the shells.

Bake and serve

  1. Top with bread crumbs and small bits of butter.

  2. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 10 minutes.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

What each ingredient does

Crab meat
Provides the main savory filling and the bulk of the dish's flavor and texture.
Eggs
Set when heated, binding the dressing so it holds its shape in the shells.
Milk
Adds moisture and creaminess to the dressing, keeping it smooth rather than dry.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and forms the base of the roux with the flour.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk mixture into a stable, spoonable dressing.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping that browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Cook the dressing over heat until the flour is combined. Flour must be fully mixed into the melted butter so it can thicken the milk and eggs evenly; lumps or undercooked flour leave a pasty texture and raw taste.

“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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