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Crab Stew

A stew of shredded crabs simmered in sweet milk with butter, pepper, lemon, sherry, tomatoes, celery, and red pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Crab Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stew

  1. Shred the crabs and boil the sweet milk in a pot.

  2. Add 1 tablespoon of butter and ½ teaspoon of black pepper to the milk.

  3. Once boiling, add the shredded crabs and heat thoroughly.

  4. Stir in the juice of 2 lemons and ⅓ cup of sherry, then serve.

Make the roux and finish

  1. In a separate pan, melt 1 tablespoon of butter and mix in 1 tablespoon of flour until browned.

  2. Add the strained tomatoes, chopped celery, red pepper, and salt to taste.

  3. Incorporate the breasts of the cleaned crabs and cook for 5 minutes.

  4. Serve hot.

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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Lemon + tomatotop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Crabs
Provide the main protein and sweet, delicate meat that forms the body of the stew.
Sweet milk
Forms the creamy liquid base that gives the stew its rich, smooth texture.
Flour
Thickens the butter fat into a roux, helping give the stew body.
Lemons
Add bright acidity that cuts the richness of the milk and butter.
Sherry
Adds acidity and a fragrant, nutty depth to the stew.
Tomatoes
Add acidity, color and a light tang to the stew.

The step that matters

Adding the lemon juice and sherry to hot milk. Acid can curdle or separate milk proteins when added to very hot dairy, so stir gently and keep the heat moderate once the acid goes in.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (crab, milk, butter, pepper, lemon, sherry, flour):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against crab, milk, butter, pepper, lemon, sherry, flour. 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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