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Crab Au Gratin

A baked crab dish topped with breadcrumbs, white sauce, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Crab Au Gratin

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the crab

  1. Remove the meat from the body and claws of the crab.

  2. Season the crab meat with pepper, coarse sea salt, mustard, and vinegar.

Assemble the dish

  1. Grease a pie dish.

  2. Sprinkle the pie dish with white breadcrumbs.

  3. Lay the seasoned crab meat in the dish.

  4. Cover the crab meat with white sauce.

  5. Top the crab with more white breadcrumbs.

  6. Place a small piece of butter on top.

  7. Sprinkle the dish with browned breadcrumbs.

Bake

  1. Heat thoroughly in a 350°F (175°C) oven.

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. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  3. Crab + buttertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together812 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Crab + saucetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together238 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Crab + mustardtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together193 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

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

What each ingredient does

Crab
Provides the main protein and flavor of the dish.
White sauce
Adds moisture and creaminess that keeps the crab meat from drying out.
White breadcrumbs
Form a base and top layer that absorb moisture and soften during baking.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the top layer brown during baking.
Browned breadcrumbs
Create a crisp, golden surface on top of the dish.

The step that matters

Heat thoroughly in a 350°F (175°C) oven. The dish is only sealed by its layers, so it must heat through completely for the crab and sauce to be safely hot. Browning the top before the center is hot leaves the inside cold.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (crab, pepper, vinegar, sauce, butter):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Onionfits less well
  4. Horseradishfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against crab, pepper, vinegar, sauce, butter. 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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