Skip to main content
Main

Deviled Shrimp

Deviled Shrimp is a creamy shrimp and egg mixture served hot with bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Deviled Shrimp

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the shrimp

  1. Wash the shrimps in cold water and dry them on a soft towel.

  2. Chop the shrimps into small pieces using a silver knife.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the flour to the melted butter and mix well.

  3. Gradually stir in the milk or cream, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens.

  4. Add the chopped hard-boiled eggs, shrimps, parsley, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and cayenne to the thickened mixture.

Serve

  1. Serve the mixture in small dishes while hot, topped with grated bread crumbs.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Shrimps
Provide the main protein and bulk of the filling, with their flavour carried through the creamy sauce.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and forms the base of the roux with the flour.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a smooth, stable sauce that holds the filling together.
Milk or cream
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding moisture and a creamy texture as it thickens.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add body and a soft, rich texture to the filling.

The step that matters

Stir the milk in gradually while stirring constantly. Adding liquid slowly to the butter and flour mixture and stirring constantly keeps the starch dispersed, so the sauce thickens smoothly without lumps.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shrimp, butter, flour, milk, egg, pepper, nutmeg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Cardamomfits about as well
  4. Turmericfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against shrimp, butter, flour, milk, egg, pepper, nutmeg. 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.

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipesOatmeal BreadOatmeal Bread51 recipes