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Salad

Fort Sumter Shrimp Salad

A chilled shrimp salad served in pepper shells with cabbage, onions, and mayonnaise.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cabbage and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,081 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fort Sumter Shrimp Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chill 1-2 chopped heads of cabbage on ice.

  2. Remove seeds and divisions from green bell peppers and chop finely.

  3. Chop 2 onions finely.

  4. Chop shrimp finely.

Assemble and serve

  1. Mix cabbage, onions, shrimp, and a little chopped peppers.

  2. Fill the pepper shells with the mixture.

  3. Serve cold with 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise on top of each pepper shell.

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. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  2. Cabbage + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,001 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Onion + shrimptop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Pepper + shrimptop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,692 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylethanol (rose, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Shrimp
Provides the main protein and savory flavor of the filling.
Mayonnaise
Adds moisture and richness, binding the filling and softening its crunch.
Cabbage
Supplies crisp texture and bulk that holds the salad together.
Green bell peppers
Form the edible shells and add a fresh, slightly bitter, crisp flavor.
Onions
Add sharp aromatic flavor that balances the sweetness of the shrimp and peppers.

The step that matters

Chill the cabbage on ice. Cold keeps cabbage cells firm and crisp, so the salad stays crunchy rather than wilting once mixed with mayonnaise.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Okrafits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, onion, 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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