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Crab Au Gratin

A baked dish of crab meat mixed with cheese, sherry, and stock, served over toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Crab and meat work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 448 recipes. Both carry 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine, which smells cocoa, roasted. The science ↓

Crab Au Gratin

Oven, in the book's wordsA very hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the crab mixture

  1. In a bowl, combine minced crab meat, pepper, coarse sea salt, grated cheese, and sherry.

  2. Stir this mixture into white stock and simmer for 10 minutes.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place slices of toast in a baking dish and pour the crab mixture over them.

  2. Top with additional grated cheese.

  3. Bake in a very hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until browned.

Serve

  1. Serve immediately.

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

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

  2. Crab + sherrytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together67 recipes

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

  3. Cheese + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together143 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl pentanoate (yeast, fruit).

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

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Meat + cheesetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together564 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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 gives it its savory seafood flavor.
Grated cheese
Melts and browns on top, adding savory richness and a golden crust.
White stock
Provides liquid that moistens the toast and carries the flavor of the filling.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the crab mixture.
Toast slices
Soaks up the liquid and gives the dish a soft, absorbent base.

The step that matters

Bake until browned. The oven must be very hot so the cheese browns and the surface sets before the toast turns soggy from the moist filling.

“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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