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Soft Shell Crabs

Cook crabs immediately to ensure freshness.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Soft Shell Crabs

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cook the crabs immediately as they do not keep overnight.

  2. Remove the spongy substance and sand-bag from each crab.

  3. Heat lard and butter in a pan until boiling hot.

  4. Add the crabs to the pan and cook until done.

  5. Remove the crabs and add a handful of parsley to the pan.

  6. Crisp the parsley but remove it before it loses color.

  7. Strew the crispy parsley over the crabs when serving.

  8. For gravy, add cream or milk to the butter with chopped parsley, pepper, and salt.

  9. Boil the mixture for a few minutes and serve in a sauceboat.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Crab + creamtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together317 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Butter + parsleytop 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

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Celeryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against crab, butter, cream, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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