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Stuffed Crabs

A dish of crab meat mixed with onion, spices, and bechamel sauce, baked with breadcrumbs and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,259 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stuffed Crabs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the crabs

  1. Cook the crabs in boiling water for 20 minutes.

  2. Let them cool, then cut them in half and clean the shells.

  3. Remove the crab meat and chop it finely.

Make the filling

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter, add the flour, and stir in the milk.

  2. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until thickened.

  3. In a separate pan, fry the chopped onion in butter until soft.

  4. Add the crab meat, cayenne pepper, mustard, spices, and nutmeg. Cook for 10 minutes.

  5. Stir the crab mixture into the bechamel sauce.

  6. Add breadcrumbs and thicken with the egg yolks mixed with water.

  7. Season to taste.

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. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  4. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Mustard + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,019 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Crab meat
Provides the main flavour and bulk of the stuffing.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavour in the sauce and onion.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth white sauce as it cooks.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the bechamel sauce, giving body and creaminess.
Egg yolks
Thicken the stuffing and add richness to bind it.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb liquid and help the stuffing hold its shape.

The step that matters

Thickening the sauce with egg yolks. Egg yolks set when heated, so they thicken the mixture. If the mixture is too hot when they are added, they can scramble and turn grainy. Add them off the heat or after the mixture has cooled slightly, stirring constantly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (crab, butter, flour, milk, pepper, mustard, nutmeg):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against crab, butter, flour, milk, pepper, mustard, nutmeg. 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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