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Crab a LA Creole

A buttery crab dish simmered with onions, chilies, tomato, and spices, served over toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper 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 a LA Creole

Ingredients

Directions

Make the crab mixture

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the onions, chilies, tomato, salt, black pepper, and cayenne; stew gently for 5-6 minutes.

  3. Sprinkle in the flour and stir in the cream.

  4. Add the crab meat and stew for 2 more minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve the mixture on toast.

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. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Meat + crabtop 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. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  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
Fat that carries flavour and enriches the sauce with richness.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid so the mixture clings to the toast.
Heavy cream
Adds moisture and richness, softening the sauce into a creamy texture.
Crab meat
Provides the main protein and sweet, delicate seafood flavour.
Green chilies
Add heat and fresh, sharp aroma to the sauteed base.
Onions
Release sweetness and aroma as they stew gently in butter.

The step that matters

Sprinkle in the flour and stir in the cream. Flour must be stirred in evenly so it dissolves without lumps; adding it to fat first coats the starch grains, and cream added afterward lets the mixture thicken smoothly rather than clumping.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Okrafits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Tomatothe original

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