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Crab Scalloped

A baked crab dish with breadcrumbs, white sauce, mustard, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Crab Scalloped

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Remove the meat from the claws and body of the crabs, discarding the unwholesome part near the head.

Make the filling

  1. Mix the crab meat with breadcrumbs, salt, pepper, mustard, and vinegar.

  2. Add white sauce until the mixture reaches the right consistency.

Bake

  1. Transfer the mixture into buttered scallop shells and sprinkle with breadcrumbs.

  2. Top with small pieces of butter.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 20 minutes until browned.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Crab + saucetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together238 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Crab + mustardtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together193 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

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 the dish its flavor.
White sauce
Binds the mixture and adds moisture so it holds together in the shells.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb liquid and give the filling body, and the topping browns in the oven.
Vinegar
Adds a touch of acidity that brightens the rich crab and sauce.

The step that matters

Bake until browned. Baking long enough sets the white sauce and browns the breadcrumb topping. Underbaking leaves the filling loose and pale, while overbaking can dry the crab meat.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Onionfits less well
  4. Horseradishfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against crab, sauce, vinegar, pepper, 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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