Why it works: Crab and sugar work together. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 407 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells grass, green. The science ↓
Jelly Op Siberian Crabs
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the crabs
Remove the stalks from the crabs, then wash and weigh them.
In a pot, add 1 pint of water for every 1.5 pounds of crabs and boil gently until the crabs are broken but not pulpy.
Pour the mixture into a jelly bag and let the juice drain until it is clear.
Make the jelly
Weigh the juice and transfer it to a clean preserving pan.
Boil the juice quickly for 15 minutes.
Stir in ¾ pound of roughly powdered sugar until dissolved.
Boil the jelly for an additional 15 to 20 minutes, skimming off any foam.
Set
Pour the jelly into ornamental moulds and let it set.
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.
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Crab + sugartop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together407 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (grass, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Siberian crabs
- Supply the natural pectin and tart flavour that give the jelly its body and character.
- Fine sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and helps it set firm and keep well.
The step that matters
Skimming the foam during the final boil. Foam that is left in the jelly can cloud it and spoil its clear appearance, so it should be removed as the jelly boils.
“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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