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Shrimps

This dish is boiled shrimps flavored with lemon thyme, mint, bay leaf, and coarse sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,973 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Shrimps

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a large pot, bring 1 gallon of water to a boil.

  2. Add 2 ounces of coarse sea salt, lemon thyme, mint, and bay leaf.

Cook the shrimps

  1. Place 1 quart of shrimps in a wire or wicker basket and submerge it in the boiling water.

  2. Boil until the shrimps change color, being careful not to overcook them.

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. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Lemon + minttop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,998 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Thyme + minttop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together285 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Lemon + shrimptop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Thyme + shrimptop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together497 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Shrimps
Protein that turns opaque and firms as it cooks, so timing decides tenderness.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the boiling water so the shrimps take on flavor as they cook.
Lemon thyme
Adds a bright, citrusy herbal aroma to the cooking water.
Mint
Adds a cool, fresh aroma to the cooking water.
Bay leaf
Adds a subtle, savory aroma to the cooking water.

The step that matters

Stop cooking when the shrimps change color. Shrimp proteins firm and toughen quickly once they turn opaque, so even a short overcook makes them rubbery. Removing them as soon as they change color keeps them tender.

Swap the mint

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, thyme, shrimp):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, thyme, shrimp. 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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