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Deviled Crabs

A baked crab dish with butter, oil, spices, Worcestershire sauce, celery seed, cracker dust, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Deviled Crabs

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Make and fill

  1. In a bowl, mix crab meat with melted butter, oil, cayenne, black pepper, salt, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, celery seed, and cracker dust.

  2. Fill crab shells with the mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Dust the tops with additional cracker dust and place a teaspoon of hard butter on each.

  2. Bake until brown and serve hot.

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. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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 seafood flavour.
Cracker dust
Binds the filling and absorbs moisture, giving a firmer texture.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set as it bakes.
Oil
Adds moisture and richness so the filling stays tender.
Worcestershire sauce
Adds savoury, tangy depth that seasons the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the tops brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Bake until brown. Baking at high heat sets the filling and browns the cracker crumb topping. Underbaking leaves the filling loose and wet, while overbaking can dry it out.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against crab, meat, butter, pepper, mustard, sauce, egg. 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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