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Crab Pie

A baked pie filled with crab meat, butter, flour, milk, anchovy sauce, spices, and bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Crab Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the crab

  1. Remove the flesh from the body and claws of the crab, ensuring no shell pieces remain.

  2. Wash and dry the crab shell.

Make the filling

  1. In a small saucepan, melt the butter and flour together.

  2. Add the milk and stir until it boils.

  3. Mix in the anchovy sauce, pepper, salt, cayenne, and lemon juice.

  4. Add the crab meat and mix thoroughly.

Fill and bake

  1. Sprinkle some bread crumbs inside the shell.

  2. Pour the crab mixture into the shell and smooth the top.

  3. Sprinkle more bread crumbs on top.

  4. Dot with butter or soak the crumbs in melted butter.

  5. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until browned 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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Crab + anchovytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together79 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  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
Provides the main meaty filling that gives the pie its flavour and body.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the crumbs brown on top.
Flour
Cooked with the butter to form a roux that thickens the milk into a smooth sauce.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce that binds the filling together.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping and a dry layer inside the shell.

The step that matters

Thickening the sauce. Flour must cook with the melted butter before the milk is added, and the milk should be brought to a boil and stirred so the sauce thickens smoothly without lumps.

“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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