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Deviled Crabs

Crab meat mixed with mustard, butter, and bread crumbs, stuffed into shells and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓

Deviled Crabs

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the crab

  1. Boil the crabs and remove the meat from the shells.

  2. In a bowl, mix the crab meat with an equal quantity of fine bread crumbs.

Make the filling

  1. Cream the butter until light, then mix in the mustard powder.

  2. Carefully stir in the crab and bread crumb mixture, a handful at a time.

Fill and bake

  1. Wash the crab shells and fill them with the mixture.

  2. Sprinkle bread crumbs over the tops and place three small pieces of butter on each.

  3. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) 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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Fresh hard-shell crabs
Provide the meat that forms the main body of the filling.
Fresh butter
Adds richness and moisture, and browns on top in the oven.
Fine bread crumbs
Bind the crab meat and absorb moisture so the filling holds together.
Mustard powder
Adds a sharp, pungent flavor that balances the richness of the butter.

The step that matters

Stirring in the crab mixture. Adding the crab and crumb mixture gently, a handful at a time, keeps the butter emulsified and the filling light. Overworking it can make the filling dense and greasy.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Onionfits about as well
  4. Mustardthe original

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