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Crabs

Fried rolls of seasoned crab meat coated in breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Crabs

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Remove the meat from the shells of the crabs and chop it finely.

  2. In a saucepan, melt the butter and flour together until bubbly.

  3. Gradually add the milk, stirring continuously.

  4. Cook gently for 10 minutes.

  5. Add the crab meat, season with salt and pepper, and mix thoroughly.

Shape and fry

  1. Allow the mixture to cool, then shape it into rolls about 3 inches long.

  2. Once cooled, brush the rolls with beaten egg.

  3. Roll the egg-brushed rolls in breadcrumbs.

  4. Fry in boiling oil for 2 minutes until golden brown.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Crab meat
Provides the main flavour and bulk of the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the base of the filling.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a binding white sauce that holds the rolls together.
Milk
Forms the liquid of the sauce, giving the filling a smooth, creamy body.
Egg
Its brushed coat helps breadcrumbs stick and promotes browning during frying.

The step that matters

Cool the filling fully before shaping. A warm, loose starch-thickened mixture will not hold its shape and may slump or split. Once cooled, the starch sets the filling firm enough to roll and coat cleanly before frying.

“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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