Name: Broiled Soft Shell Crabs
Ingredients: 8 soft shell crabs; 8 thin slices buttered toast; ½ cup butter; 1 teaspoon minced parsley; ½ teaspoon salt; 1½ tablespoons olive oil; ½ lemon, sliced thin; ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Broiled Soft Shell Crabs

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

Preheat the broiler.
Clean the soft shell crabs and remove the gills.
In a bowl, mix butter, parsley, salt, olive oil, and cayenne pepper.

Broil and serve

Brush the crabs with the butter mixture.
Place the crabs under the broiler for about 5 minutes, until cooked through.
Serve the crabs on buttered toast, garnished with lemon slices.

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 + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Parsley + olivetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,649 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Olive + lemontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,922 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Soft shell crabs: Provide the main protein, which cooks quickly and turns opaque under the broiler.
Butter: Carries heat and adds richness, moisture and browning to the crabs.
Olive oil: Adds fat that helps the butter mixture coat the crabs and stay moist.
Toast: Gives a crisp, absorbent base that holds the crabs and soaks up their juices.

The step that matters

Broiling the crabs. Soft shell crabs cook fast and dry out or burn easily under direct high heat, so watch them closely. They are done when the flesh turns opaque and firm.

“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.

Lemon Sauce236 recipes

Crab Soup39 recipes

Tomato Soup526 recipes

Brown Bread461 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.

Broiled Soft Shell Crabs