Name: Crab a LA Creole
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon butter; 1 large onion, chopped; 2 green peppers, chopped; 2 tomatoes, chopped; meat of 1 large crab; salt to taste; pepper to taste; slices of buttered toast; quarters of lemon

Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Crab a LA Creole

Ingredients

Directions

In a large skillet, melt the butter over medium heat.
Add the chopped onion and green peppers; sauté until soft.
Stir in the chopped tomatoes, salt, and pepper; cook until soft.
Add the crab meat and heat until very hot.
Serve the mixture over slices of buttered toast with lemon quarters.

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.

Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Meat + crabtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together448 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).
Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

Onion: Softens and sweetens as it sautés, forming the flavor base of the dish.
Green peppers: Add a fresh, slightly bitter vegetable flavor and some texture to the sauce.
Tomatoes: Break down as they cook, adding moisture and acidity to the mixture.
Crab meat: Is the main protein, gently heated so it stays tender and warm.

Swap the lemon

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

Avocadofits better
Lemonthe original
Limefits about as well
Plumfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, onion, pepper, tomato, 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.