Name: Crab, to Dress
Ingredients: 1 medium-sized crab; 1 hard-boiled egg; 2 tablespoons vinegar; 2 tablespoons salad oil; salt to taste; pepper to taste; cayenne to taste

Why it works: Vinegar and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,814 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Crab, to Dress

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Prepare the crab by boiling it until cooked, then remove the meat from the shell.
Chop the hard-boiled egg and mix it with the crab meat.

Dress and serve

In a bowl, combine vinegar, salad oil, salt, pepper, and cayenne.
Pour the dressing over the crab and egg mixture and toss gently to combine.

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.

Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Crab + peppertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together922 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Crab + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together467 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Crab + vinegartop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together302 recipes

Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).
Egg + vinegartop 33% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together12,922 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and vinegar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,922 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 and flavor, forming the bulk of the salad.
Hard-boiled egg: Adds richness and a soft, creamy texture to the crab meat.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the oil.
Salad oil: Adds fat that carries flavor and gives the dressing a smooth coating.

“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.