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Soft-shell Crabs Fried

Fried soft-shell crabs seasoned with coarse sea salt and black pepper, cooked in lard and butter, served hot with fresh butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Crab and butter work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 812 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Soft-shell Crabs Fried

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the crabs

  1. Raise the ends of the crabs and remove the sand-bags and spongy substance from beneath the shells.

  2. Wash the crabs well and wipe them dry.

  3. Sprinkle the crabs with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

Fry and serve

  1. In a frying pan, heat equal parts of lard and butter until boiling.

  2. Carefully lay the crabs in the hot fat.

  3. Turn the crabs when partly cooked, leaving them longest on the white or under side.

  4. Cook for 10 to 15 minutes, depending on size.

  5. Rub a little fresh butter over the backs of the crabs when serving, and serve very hot.

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

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Crab + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together922 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Soft-shell crabs
Provide the main protein, which cooks quickly and becomes crisp in hot fat.
Lard
Conducts heat evenly and fries the crabs while adding richness and browning.
Butter
Adds flavour and helps the crabs brown in the hot fat.

The step that matters

Turning the crabs in the hot fat. Fat must be hot enough to sear the shell quickly. Turning once partly cooked, and spending more time on the underside, helps the crabs brown evenly without overcooking or sticking.

“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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