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Deviled Crabs

Deviled crabs are a dish of canned deviled crabs mixed with a dressing of egg yolks, butter, vinegar, mustard, and spices, then baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and mustard 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 ↓

Deviled Crabs

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Prepare a dressing by rubbing the yolks of the hard boiled eggs into the melted butter.

  2. Add vinegar, salt, pepper, mustard, and the beaten egg to the mixture.

  3. Chop the whites of the hard boiled eggs and mix them in.

  4. Stir in the boiling water and combine with the deviled crabs.

Bake and serve

  1. Fill the shells with the mixture and brown in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).

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

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

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Deviled crabs
Form the base of the filling, supplying the main flavor and bulk of the dish.
Hard boiled eggs
Yolks enrich the butter dressing while chopped whites add body to the filling.
Melted butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying the flavor of the dressing through the filling.
Beaten egg
Helps bind the mixture so it holds its shape and sets when baked.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, creamy filling.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Chivefits about as well

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