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Boiled Crayfish

A boiled freshwater crayfish dish seasoned with carrot, onion, vinegar, salt, parsley, and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Boiled Crayfish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the crayfish thoroughly, ideally by standing them in a basket under running water.

  2. In a saucepan, add enough water to cover the crayfish and include the carrot, onion, vinegar, salt, parsley, and herbs.

Boil and drain

  1. Bring the water to a boil, then quickly add the crayfish.

  2. Boil for 15 minutes, then remove the crayfish and drain them thoroughly.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Vinegar + parsleytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,477 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Crayfish
The main ingredient, cooked through by boiling in the seasoned water.
Vinegar
Adds acidity to the cooking liquid, sharpening the flavour of the crayfish.
Carrot
Adds subtle sweetness and aroma to the cooking liquid.
Onion
Adds savoury aroma and depth to the cooking liquid.

The step that matters

Adding the crayfish to boiling water. Adding the crayfish once the water is already boiling keeps the liquid at a rolling boil, so the crayfish cook quickly and evenly. Adding them to cold or lukewarm water lets the temperature drop and the cooking time stretch unevenly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (crayfish, carrot, vinegar, parsley):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against crayfish, carrot, vinegar, parsley. 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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