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Scalloped Crabs

A baked crab dish with seasoned crab meat stuffed into shells and topped with crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Scalloped Crabs

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the crab

  1. Boil crabs in a kettle of boiling water with ½ cup of coarse sea salt for 20 to 30 minutes.

  2. Remove crabs from water and pick out all the meat, being careful not to break the shells.

Fill and bake

  1. In a bowl, mix the crab meat with salt, pepper, nutmeg, cracker crumbs, beaten eggs, and butter.

  2. Clean the crab shells and fill each shell with the mixture.

  3. Sprinkle additional crumbs on top and moisten with crab liquor.

  4. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden brown, about a few minutes.

  5. Serve hot on large dishes.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Nutmeg + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,997 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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 gives it its flavor.
Eggs
Bind the filling so it holds together when baked in the shells.
Cracker or bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help the filling set while forming a crisp, browned top.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the filling and aids browning on top.

The step that matters

Baking until golden brown. Eggs set as they heat, so overbaking can make the filling dry and rubbery, while underbaking leaves it loose. Watch the color rather than relying only on the stated time.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (crab, pepper, bread, egg, butter):

  1. Parsleyfits about as well
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Capersfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against crab, pepper, bread, egg, butter. 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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