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Crab Soup

A soup made with crab meat, celery, water, milk, salt, pepper, and served with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Crab Soup

Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Crab Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. In a pot, combine the chopped crab meat and celery with 1 quart of water.

  2. Bring to a boil and cook for 30 minutes.

  3. Season with salt and pepper.

  4. Add 1 quart of milk and bring to a boil again.

Serve

  1. Serve in a tureen over minced 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Crab + parsleytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together330 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
Provides the main flavour and tender meat that defines the soup.
Celery
Adds a mild, savoury aroma and subtle crunch to the broth.
Milk
Makes the soup creamy and rich, softening its flavour.

The step that matters

Bringing the milk to a boil. Once milk is added, boiling it hard can scorch the bottom of the pot and cause the milk to curdle or separate. Keep the heat moderate and watch closely so the soup stays smooth and creamy.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Marjoramfits about as well
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Celerythe original
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against crab, pepper, milk, parsley. 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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