Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Siberian Crab Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Cook and drain the crabs
Boil a peck of crabs in enough water to cover them for 2 hours.
Place the crabs in a jelly bag and allow them to drain without squeezing.
Make the syrup and finish
For each pint of syrup, add 1 pound of loaf sugar and boil for 30 minutes.
Select the reddest crabs for a beautiful jelly color.
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.
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Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,842 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Crab + sugartop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together407 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (grass, green).
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Crab + syruptop 22% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Crabs
- Supplies the main flavor and, when the reddest are chosen, the jelly's color.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and helps it set as the syrup boils down.
The step that matters
Drain the crabs without squeezing. Squeezing the jelly bag pushes fine solids through the strained liquid, which makes the finished jelly cloudy instead of clear.
“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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