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Stuffed Crabs or Lobster

A dish of crab or lobster meat stuffed into shells, seasoned with bread crumbs, spices, lemon, butter, and sweet cream, then baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Stuffed Crabs or Lobster

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

  1. Boil the crabs or lobster and remove the meat, keeping the shells intact.

  2. Rub the shells with salad oil.

Fill and bake

  1. Mix the crab or lobster meat with ¼ cup fine bread crumbs, a pinch of nutmeg, cayenne pepper to taste, 1 teaspoon grated lemon rind, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 2 tablespoons butter, and 2 tablespoons sweet cream.

  2. Fill the shells with the mixture, dust lightly with bread crumbs, and dot with butter.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until browned.

  4. Garnish with parsley and lemon before serving.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  5. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Crab or lobster meat
Forms the main body of the filling and provides the seafood flavor.
Fine bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and butter, giving the filling a soft, slightly firm texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the filling brown on top in the oven.
Sweet cream
Adds moisture and richness so the filling stays tender rather than dry.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich crab and butter flavors.

The step that matters

Bake until browned. Baking heats the filling through and browns the buttered crumb topping. Stopping too early leaves the filling cool and pale, while overbaking dries out the crab meat and cream, making it tough.

“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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