Name: Soft Shelled Crabs
Ingredients: Soft shelled crabs; Lard for frying; Parsley; Pepper; Coarse sea salt; Rich milk

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 Shelled Crabs

Ingredients

Directions

Remove the spongy substance and sand bag from the crabs.
Fry the crabs in lard until cooked.
Crisp parsley in the fat after removing the crabs.
Add pepper, coarse sea salt, and rich milk to the pan for gravy.
Serve the crabs with the prepared gravy.

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.

Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Crab + peppertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together922 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Crab + parsleytop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together330 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Pepper + milktop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together26,984 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Crab + milktop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together225 recipes

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