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Crabs in Shell

Boiled crab meat mixed with onion, ginger, lime, pepper, mushroom ketchup, butter, stock, and bread crumbs, stuffed into shells and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and lime match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,621 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Crabs in Shell

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the crab

  1. Clean and boil the crabs in salt.

  2. Remove the meat from the shells and reserve the coral.

  3. Chop the crab meat and mix with onion, ginger juice, lime juice, pepper, and mushroom ketchup.

Make the filling

  1. Melt butter in a pan and fry the mixture until absorbed.

  2. Add stock and remove from heat when it starts to bubble.

Fill and bake

  1. Butter the shells and fill them with the crab mixture.

  2. Grind the coral and sprinkle it over the filled shells with bread crumbs and bits of butter.

  3. Bake for a few minutes at 350°F (175°C).

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. Ginger + limetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,621 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Lime + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,491 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Ginger + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,800 recipes

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

  5. Onion + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,595 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Crabs
The main protein, whose meat forms the body of the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavor through the filling and helping the crumb topping brown.
Stock
Adds moisture so the crab mixture stays tender rather than dry as it cooks.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and form a light crust on top of the filling as it bakes.
Coral from crabs
Adds rich, concentrated crab flavor and color to the topping.

The step that matters

Fry the mixture until absorbed. Cooking the crab mixture in butter until the liquid evaporates concentrates its flavor and drives off excess moisture. Stopping too early leaves a watery filling, while overcooking makes the meat tough and dry.

Swap the lime

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (crab, onion, ginger, pepper, mushroom, ketchup, butter):

  1. Lemonfits about as well
  2. Limethe original
  3. Avocadofits less well
  4. Coconutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against crab, onion, ginger, pepper, mushroom, ketchup, butter. 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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