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Crab Gumbo

A stew of crabs, onions, tomatoes, okra, ham, and seasonings simmered in a roux base.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Sauce and ketchup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,099 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Crab Gumbo

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare the crabs by cleaning them.

Make the gumbo

  1. In a pot, brown the chopped onions in butter.

  2. Add the flour and stir until combined.

  3. Mix in the tomatoes and boiling water, then add the crabs.

  4. Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

  5. Add the Lea & Perrin's sauce, tomato ketchup, salt, and pepper.

  6. Fry the okra and ham separately, then add to the pot.

Serve

  1. Serve with sliced lemon.

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. Sauce + ketchuptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

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

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

  4. Crab + buttertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together812 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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

Crabs
Provide the main protein and sweet seafood flavor that defines the dish.
Onions
Build a sweet, savory base of flavor when browned in butter.
Flour
Thickens the broth into a body-rich gumbo texture.
Tomatoes
Add acidity, moisture, and color to the gumbo base.
Okra
Releases a natural thickening effect that gives gumbo its characteristic texture.

The step that matters

Adding the flour to the browned onions. Flour must be stirred in evenly so it cooks into the fat and avoids lumps; cooking it briefly removes raw starch taste and lets it thicken the liquid smoothly when the boiling water and tomatoes are added.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (crab, onion, butter, flour, sauce, ketchup, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against crab, onion, butter, flour, sauce, ketchup, pepper. 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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