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Mayonnaise Souffle of Crab

A chilled crab soufflé layered with mayonnaise, aspic jelly, and fried breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Crab and meat work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 448 recipes. Both carry 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine, which smells cocoa, roasted. The science ↓

Mayonnaise Souffle of Crab

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the case

  1. Butter the inside of a soufflé case.

  2. Pin a band of buttered paper around the sides of the case.

Build the layers

  1. Whip some aspic jelly.

  2. Pour a little of the whipped jelly into the bottom of the lined case.

  3. Spread a layer of mayonnaise sauce on top of the aspic jelly.

  4. Add the seasoned crab meat.

  5. Top with more chopped aspic jelly, filling to about 3 inches above the lining.

Chill and serve

  1. Chill in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

  2. Sprinkle the lining with fried breadcrumbs before serving.

  3. Serve alongside a plate of chopped aspic jelly.

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. Crab + meattop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together448 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

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

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Crab + saucetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together238 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  5. Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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 flesh and flavour of the dish.
Mayonnaise sauce
Adds richness and moisture between the crab and the jelly layers.
Aspic jelly
Sets into a firm gel that holds the layers together when chilled.
Oil
Forms the emulsion base of the mayonnaise, giving it body and richness.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the mayonnaise.

The step that matters

Whipping the aspic jelly. The jelly must be cooled to the right stage before whipping so it becomes light and airy yet still sets firmly; if it is too warm or too cold, the layers may not hold together.

“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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