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Deviled Crab

A baked crab dish with cream, mustard, and bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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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 ↓

Deviled Crab

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the crabs

  1. Boil the crabs for 30 minutes.

  2. Drain, break off the claws, and separate the shells, removing the spongy fingers and stomach.

  3. Pick out all the meat and wash and wipe the shells.

Make the filling

  1. Heat the cream in a small saucepan.

  2. Mix the flour and mustard with 2 tablespoons of butter, then stir into the boiling cream.

  3. Boil for 2 minutes, remove from heat, and add the crab meat and seasoning.

  4. Mix well and fill the crab shells with the mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Sprinkle with bread crumbs and dot with remaining butter.

  2. Bake in a hot oven (400°F / 200°C) until the crumbs are brown, placing a grate under the pan to prevent burning.

  3. Serve on a bed of parsley, arranging the claws on top.

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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Parsley + mustardtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,588 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Crabs
Provide the main meat that forms the filling.
Cream
Makes a rich, smooth sauce that binds the crab meat together.
Flour
Thickens the cream into a sauce that holds the filling together.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour, and browns the bread crumb topping.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping when baked.

The step that matters

Bake with a grate under the pan. The topping can scorch before the filling heats through. A grate under the pan lowers the direct heat reaching the base, so the crumbs brown evenly without burning.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (crab, cream, flour, butter, parsley, lemon, nutmeg):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Okrafits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against crab, cream, flour, butter, parsley, lemon, 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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