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Scalloped Crabs

A baked crab dish with butter sauce, eggs, lemon, and cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 ↓

Scalloped Crabs

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Remove the meat from the shells of the crabs, discarding the stomach, intestine, and soft fins, but saving the green fat and curd.

  2. Chop the hard-boiled eggs finely and grate the lemon rind.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter and flour over medium heat until bubbling.

  2. Gradually stir in the milk and bring the sauce to a boil.

Combine and bake

  1. Season the sauce with salt, pepper, and cayenne, then add the crab meat, chopped eggs, and lemon juice.

  2. Heat the mixture together, then transfer it to scallop shells or a serving dish.

  3. Dust the tops with cracker crumbs and brown in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C).

  4. Serve immediately.

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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Crab + buttertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together812 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 meat
Forms the main body of the dish and gives its sweet, delicate flavor.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add body and richness to the filling, giving it a softer, more substantial texture.
Butter
Adds fat and flavor and forms the base of the roux with the flour.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce that holds the filling together.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding creaminess.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich sauce and crab flavor.

The step that matters

Gradually stirring the milk into the butter and flour. Adding the liquid slowly while stirring keeps the starch dispersed, so the sauce becomes smooth instead of lumpy. The starch must then come to a boil to fully thicken.

“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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