Skip to main content
Main

Devilled Crabs

Devilled crabs are crab shells filled with a creamy, seasoned mixture of butter, flour, stock, cream, onion, egg, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Devilled 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.

Make the filling

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Stir in the flour and cook for a few minutes.

  3. Add the white stock and cream, then the chopped onion.

  4. Season with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and cayenne.

  5. Mix in the crab meat and bring to a boil.

  6. Stir in the raw egg and cook until thickened.

  7. Pour the mixture onto a flat dish to cool.

Fill and bake

  1. Fill the crab shells with the mixture.

  2. Brush with oiled butter and egg, then sprinkle with bread crumbs.

  3. Bake at 400°F (200°C) until light brown.

Serve

  1. Serve on folded napkins, garnished with parsley.

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 + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  2. Crab + meattop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together448 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  4. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cream + crabtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together317 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Enriches the filling with fat and flavor, and browns the crumb topping.
Flour
Thickens the butter and stock into a smooth base for the filling.
White stock
Provides the liquid that forms the body of the creamy filling.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, giving the filling a softer texture.
Crab meat
Forms the main protein and flavor of the filling.
Raw egg
Sets when heated, binding the filling so it holds its shape.

The step that matters

Cooking the raw egg into the filling. Egg proteins set as they heat, so the filling thickens and binds. Cook it gently until thick, since overheating can make the egg curdle and turn the filling grainy.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, cream, pepper, nutmeg, crab, meat. 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.

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipesMeat CroquettesMeat Croquettes52 recipes