Name: Crab Louis
Ingredients: ½ cup tomato catsup; 2 tablespoons olive oil; 3 tablespoons vinegar; a little paprika; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce; 2 hard boiled eggs, sliced fine; cracked crab, properly iced; lettuce leaves

Why it works: Tomato and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,539 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Crab Louis

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Rub a dish with garlic.

Make the dressing

In a bowl, combine tomato catsup, olive oil, vinegar, paprika, salt, and Worcestershire sauce, then mix well.

Serve

Pour the dressing over the cracked crab.
Garnish with sliced hard boiled eggs and serve on a bed of lettuce leaves.

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.

Tomato + olivetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,539 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Olive + lettucetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,580 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Tomato + lettucetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,655 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Olive + vinegartop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,297 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).
Sauce + crabtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together238 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Cracked crab: Forms the main body of the dish, providing the protein and flavor base.
Tomato catsup: Adds sweetness and acidity to the dressing, giving it its characteristic tangy flavor.
Olive oil: Adds fat to the dressing, giving it a smooth, rich mouthfeel.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the sweetness of the catsup.
Hard boiled eggs: Add richness and a soft, firm texture as a garnish.

Swap the lettuce

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, olive, vinegar, sauce, egg, crab):

Capsicumfits better
Cucumberfits about as well
Mustardfits about as well
Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, olive, vinegar, sauce, egg, 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.