Name: Soft-shell Crabs
Ingredients: soft-shell crabs; 1 beaten egg; fine bread or cracker crumbs; boiling fat for frying; coarse sea salt; cayenne pepper

Why it works: Egg and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,662 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Soft-shell Crabs

Ingredients

Directions

Lift the shell at both sides and remove the spongy substance from the back.
Pull off the 'apron' from the underside of the crab.
Wipe the crabs clean and dip them in the beaten egg.
Coat the crabs in fine bread or cracker crumbs.
Fry in boiling fat for 8 to 10 minutes, depending on the size of the crabs.
Serve with Tartare sauce or season with salt and cayenne and fry as before.

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.

Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Crab + peppertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together922 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Crab + breadtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together387 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,964 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Crab + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together467 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).