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Crab Soufflees

A baked souffle made with crab, anchovies, cream, eggs, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Crab Soufflees

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the base

  1. Melt the butter in a pan.

  2. Add the flour and gradually stir in the cream until boiling.

  3. Add the washed, boned, and sieved anchovies, seasonings, crab flesh, and egg yolks.

Bake and serve

  1. Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks and gently fold them into the mixture.

  2. Pour the mixture into well-buttered souffle cases lined with buttered paper bands.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 10 minutes.

  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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Cream + crabtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together317 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

  3. Butter + crabtop 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. Crab + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together922 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

Butter
Enriches the base and carries flavour while the flour is cooked into a roux.
Flour
Thickens the cream into a stable base that holds the soufflé's structure.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, loosening the thickened base into a smooth sauce.
Eggs
Yolks enrich and thicken the base; whipped whites lift and set the soufflé in the oven.
Crab
Provides the main flavour and tender texture of the soufflé.
Anchovies
Adds savoury depth and saltiness that complements the crab.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites beaten to stiff peaks trap air that expands in the oven to lift the soufflé. Stirring vigorously knocks that air out, so fold gently and keep the mixture from deflating before baking.

“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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