Name: A Crab Welsh Rarebit
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon butter; 1 tablespoon flour; 4 tablespoons veal or chicken stock; ½ cup cream (with a pinch of baking soda); 1 cup crab meat, diced (less than ½ inch square); 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese; 2 tablespoons sherry; slices of bread, toasted and buttered

Why it works: Crab and meat work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 448 recipes. Both carry 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine, which smells cocoa, roasted. The science ↓

A Crab Welsh Rarebit

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon flour
4 tablespoons veal or chicken stock
½ cup cream (with a pinch of baking soda)
1 cup crab meat, diced (less than ½ inch square)
2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons sherry
slices of bread, toasted and buttered

Directions

Make the sauce

Make a white roux by melting the butter and mixing in the flour until smooth.
Gradually add the stock and bring to a boil.
Remove from heat and stir in the cream a little at a time.
Add the crab meat and simmer in hot water for 10 minutes.
Stir in the Parmesan cheese and cook for 1 minute.
Remove from heat and mix in the sherry.

Assemble and serve

Spread the crab mixture on the toasted bread, cover with more cheese.
Place under a broiler for 3 minutes to melt the cheese.
Serve immediately.

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.

Crab + meattop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together448 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,163 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Parmesan cheese + sherrytop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together99 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Cream + crabtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together317 recipes

Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter: Melted with flour to form the roux that thickens the sauce.
Flour: Forms with the butter a roux that thickens the stock and cream into a smooth sauce.
Cream: Adds richness and body to the sauce, giving it a silky texture.
Crab meat: Provides the main seafood flavour and tender texture in the filling.
Parmesan cheese: Adds savoury, salty flavour and melts into the sauce and topping.

The step that matters

Adding the cream to the hot sauce. Stirring cream in a little at a time, off the heat, keeps the sauce smooth. Adding it all at once or while boiling can cause the dairy to curdle or become grainy.

“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.

Brown Bread461 recipes

Macaroni and Cheese102 recipes

White Bread80 recipes

Bread Omelette60 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

A Crab Welsh Rarebit