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Crab Bisque

A soup made with crabs, onions, tomatoes, bacon fat, spices, milk, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,331 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Crab Bisque

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Fry the onions in bacon fat until soft.

  2. Add the tomatoes and water or soup stock; boil until the tomatoes break down.

  3. Add the crabs, allspice, nutmeg, salt, and pepper; boil for 30 minutes.

  4. Stir in the milk and flour; allow to boil once.

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. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Onions
Softened in fat to build the sweet, savory base of the soup.
Bacon fat
Carries the onion flavor and adds richness to the soup.
Tomatoes
Break down into the broth, adding acidity and body.
Crabs
Provide the main seafood flavor and tender meat in the bisque.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softens the broth's sharp edges.
Flour
Thickens the milk-enriched broth so it becomes smooth and body-rich.

The step that matters

Stir in the milk and flour; allow to boil once.. Flour needs heat to thicken, but milk can curdle or scorch if it boils hard or too long. Add it near the end and bring it up just once, stirring constantly, so the bisque thickens smoothly.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, crab, allspice, nutmeg, pepper, milk, flour):

  1. Okrafits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, crab, allspice, nutmeg, pepper, milk, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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