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Crab Devilled

A crab dish with seasoned white sauce, anchovy essence, chutney, and mustard, baked with breadcrumbs and garnished with parsley.

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. Pick 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 to the mixture, excluding the reserved claw.

Bake and serve

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

  2. Cover lightly with browned breadcrumbs and bake at 400°F (200°C) for about 15 minutes.

  3. Meanwhile, flake the meat from the reserved claw and warm it between two plates in the oven or over boiling water.

  4. Remove the crab from the oven and garnish with the flaked 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
Provides the main meaty texture and sweet, delicate flavour of the filling.
White sauce
Binds the crab meat into a moist, creamy filling that holds together.
Anchovy essence
Adds savoury depth and salty umami that rounds out the crab.
Chutney
Contributes sweetness and acidity that balance the rich sauce.
Vinegar
Adds sharpness that brightens the richness of the filling.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, browned topping as the dish bakes.

The step that matters

Bake the filling until just hot and lightly browned. Over-baking dries the crab meat and can split the white sauce, while under-baking leaves the filling cold in the centre. The breadcrumb topping browns through Maillard reactions, so it needs enough heat and time to colour without burning.

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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