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Crab Loaf

A loaf of crab meat mixed with breadcrumbs, tomato sauce, egg, and seasonings, boiled and served on lettuce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Crab Loaf

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the loaf

  1. Combine crab, breadcrumbs, salt, pepper, tomato sauce, and egg in a bowl.

  2. Mix well with a wooden spoon.

  3. Turn the mixture onto a floured board.

  4. Knead into a compact roll.

  5. Tie the roll in a cloth.

Cook and serve

  1. Plunge it into a saucepan of boiling water.

  2. Boil for one hour.

  3. Remove from the saucepan and allow to cool.

  4. Serve on a bed of finely cut lettuce.

  5. Garnish with slices of tomato or hard-boiled egg.

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. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Tomato + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,469 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Crab + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together922 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Crab + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together467 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Crab
Forms the main body and flavour of the loaf.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb moisture and help the mixture hold together as a loaf.
Egg
Binds the mixture so it sets firm when cooked.
Tomato sauce
Adds moisture and acidity, flavouring the loaf.

The step that matters

Kneading into a compact roll. Kneading presses the crab, crumbs and egg into an even mass. If it is loose, the loaf can fall apart during boiling and cooling, so it should be firm and tightly rolled before tying in the cloth.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

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