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Crab, Devilled

A crab dish with seasoned white sauce, anchovy essence, chutney, vinegar, mustard, parsley, and breadcrumbs, baked and garnished.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Sauce and anchovy 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, Devilled

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot 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 meat from the crab shells and set one claw aside.

  2. Clean the crab shell.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, mix the white sauce, anchovy essence, chutney, vinegar, and mustard.

  2. Season the mixture with salt, pepper, and cayenne.

  3. Add the crab meat (except the reserved claw) to the mixture.

  4. Fill the cleaned shell with the mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Cover lightly with brown breadcrumbs.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 15 minutes.

  3. Flake the meat from the reserved claw.

  4. Warm the flaked meat between two plates in the oven or over boiling water.

  5. Remove the crab from the oven.

  6. Garnish with the flaked claw and chopped parsley.

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. Sauce + anchovytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Mustard + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,588 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Crab
Provides the main meat, which forms the body of the filling.
Thick white sauce
Binds the crab meat into a moist, creamy filling.
Anchovy essence
Adds a salty, savoury depth that gives the filling its character.
Mustard
Adds sharp heat that cuts through the richness of the sauce.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the filling.
Brown breadcrumbs
Forms a crisp, golden topping as the crab bakes.

The step that matters

Warming the reserved claw meat. Flaked crab meat is delicate and dries out or toughens with too much heat, so warming it gently between plates keeps it tender and moist for garnish.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (crab, sauce, anchovy, vinegar, mustard, pepper):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Garlicfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against crab, sauce, anchovy, vinegar, mustard, pepper. 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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