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Crab, Devilled

Devilled crab with white sauce, anchovy essence, chutney, vinegar, mustard, parsley, cayenne, salt, pepper, and breadcrumbs, baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Sauce and anchovy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Crab, Devilled

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the filling

  1. Remove the meat from the crab shells and set one claw aside.

  2. In a bowl, mix the white sauce, anchovy essence, chutney, vinegar, and mustard.

  3. Season the mixture with salt, pepper, and cayenne.

  4. Add the crab meat (except the claw) to the mixture and combine well.

Fill and bake

  1. Clean the crab shell and fill it with the mixture.

  2. Cover lightly with brown breadcrumbs.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 15 minutes.

  4. Remove the crab from the oven.

Garnish and serve

  1. Separate the meat from the reserved claw into fine flakes.

  2. Warm the flakes between two plates in the oven or over boiling water.

  3. Garnish with the claw and chopped parsley.

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 + anchovytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Crab + anchovytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together79 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Mustard + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,588 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Crab meat
Forms the main body of the filling and provides the seafood flavour and texture.
Thick white sauce
Binds the filling together and keeps it moist during baking.
Brown breadcrumbs
Forms a crisp, browned crust over the top when baked.
Anchovy essence
Adds a salty, savoury depth that enriches the filling.
Mustard
Adds sharpness that cuts through the richness of the sauce and crab.

The step that matters

Warming the reserved crab flakes. Gentle warming over boiling water or between plates heats the delicate flakes without toughening them, which overheating would do.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (crab, sauce, anchovy, vinegar, mustard, pepper):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Garlicfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against crab, sauce, anchovy, vinegar, mustard, 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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