Name: Dressed Crab
Ingredients: white crab meat; yellow crab meat; vinegar; mustard

Why it works: Vinegar and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Dressed Crab

Ingredients

white crab meat
yellow crab meat
vinegar
mustard

Directions

Form a wall with the white crab meat in a dish.
Mix the yellow crab meat with vinegar and mustard to create a pool in the center.
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.

Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Crab + meattop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together448 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).
Crab + mustardtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together193 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Meat + mustardtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together855 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Crab + vinegartop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together302 recipes

Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).