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Stuffed Crabs

Stuffed crabs are filled with a seasoned crab meat mixture, browned with onion and butter, then baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Stuffed Crabs

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the crab

  1. Boil the crabs for 30 minutes.

  2. Let them cool.

  3. Carefully pick the meat from the shells.

  4. Wash and scrub the crab shells.

Make the filling

  1. Mix the crab meat with ⅓ cup of fine bread crumbs.

  2. Season with salt, pepper, and parsley.

  3. In a skillet, brown a small piece of onion in 1 tablespoon of butter.

  4. Add the crab mixture and fry for a few minutes.

Stuff and bake

  1. Fill them with the crab meat mixture.

  2. Dust the tops with pulverized toasted bread.

  3. Brown in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for a few moments.

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 + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Crab meat
Forms the main body of the filling and provides the dish's flavor.
Fine bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and bind the crab meat into a filling that holds its shape.
Butter
Adds fat and richness and helps the onion brown in the skillet.
Onion
Adds aroma and savory sweetness when browned in butter.
Toasted bread
Adds a dry, crisp topping that browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Browning the onion in butter. Onion should soften and take on light color without burning, since scorched butter and onion turn bitter and dark. Cooking it gently first builds aroma that carries into the filling.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against crab, bread, pepper, parsley, 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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