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Crab Patties

A fried crab patty served with a cream and parsley gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

Crab Patties

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the patties

  1. Pick the meat from the crabs and combine it with the fat.

  2. Season with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  3. Add one beaten egg for every dozen crab patties.

  4. Mould the mixture into flat cakes and dip in flour.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the patties in butter until golden brown.

  2. For the gravy, add cream and chopped parsley.

  3. Serve the gravy over the crab patties in a gravy boat.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Meat + crabtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together448 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Meat from crabs
Forms the main body of the patties and provides their flavour.
Egg
Binds the mixture so the patties hold their shape.
Flour
Coats the patties so they brown and develop a crisp surface when fried.
Butter
Fries the patties, adding fat for browning and a rich flavour.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture to the gravy.

The step that matters

Frying the patties in butter until golden brown. The patties are delicate and can break apart or scorch. Moderate heat and a flour coating let the surface brown evenly through the Maillard reaction while the interior stays moist and set.

Swap the parsley

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, crab, pepper, egg, butter, cream, flour. 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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