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Crawfish Dumplings

Crawfish dumplings are baked parcels of crawfish meat, boned fish, egg, bread, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Crawfish Dumplings

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Remove the meat from the crawfish tails and chop it finely.

  2. Mix the crawfish meat with the boned fish, crawfish butter, egg yolks, and grated bread.

  3. Beat the egg whites until frothy and fold them into the mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Spoon the mixture into small heaps on a baking sheet.

  2. Bake at 400°F (200°C) until light brown.

  3. Serve in soup or use as stuffing.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  3. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

  4. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Beaten until frothy, they trap air and lighten the mixture so the dumplings puff and stay tender.
Egg yolks
Bind the filling together and add richness and structure as the dumplings set.
Grated bread
Absorbs moisture and helps the mixture hold its shape while it bakes.
Boned fish
Forms the main body of the filling, providing bulk and a delicate texture.
Crawfish tails
Provide the main crawfish flavour and a firm, meaty texture in the filling.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Beaten egg whites hold air that makes the dumplings light. Stirring them in vigorously knocks out that air and leaves dense dumplings, so fold gently and keep the mixture airy.

“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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