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To Pot Prawns, or Sbrimps

A dish of boiled prawns or shrimp seasoned with nutmeg, lemon peel, white pepper, and salt, baked in butter and finished with clarified butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

To Pot Prawns, or Sbrimps

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the prawns

  1. Boil the prawns or shrimp.

  2. Remove them from their shells.

  3. Season with grated nutmeg, lemon peel, white pepper, and coarse sea salt.

Pack and bake

  1. Pack the mixture tightly into a jar.

  2. Place a thin layer of butter on top.

  3. Cover with paper.

  4. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 8 to 10 minutes.

Finish

  1. Wait until cooled.

  2. Pour clarified butter over the top.

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. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

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

  2. Shrimp + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,931 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  3. Nutmeg + white peppertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Nutmeg + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 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

Prawns or shrimp
Provide the main protein, which sets firm and holds the dish together when cooked.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and seals the top of the packed mixture.
Clarified butter
Forms a clear fat layer on top that preserves the dish and adds a rich flavour.

The step that matters

Packing the mixture tightly. Tight packing removes air pockets so the prawns stay dense and the layer of butter seals the surface, which helps keep the dish from drying out and spoiling.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shrimp, nutmeg, lemon, butter. 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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