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Curried Shrimps

A butter‑based curry with shrimps, tomatoes, onions, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Curried Shrimps

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a pan.

  2. Brown the chopped onion in the butter.

  3. Add the flour and curry powder, stirring well.

  4. Slowly add the strained tomatoes and cook until thickened.

Finish and serve

  1. Cut the shrimps into small pieces and add them to the mixture.

  2. Season with salt, pepper, and paprika.

  3. Serve in timbrels.

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. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Butter + shrimptop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,931 recipes

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

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Thickens the tomato mixture into a smooth sauce as it cooks.
Butter
Carries the onion and spices and adds richness to the sauce.
Strained tomatoes
Form the liquid base of the sauce and add acidity and body.
Shrimps
Provide the main protein and seafood flavour of the dish.
Curry powder
Supplies the warm, aromatic spice flavour that defines the dish.

The step that matters

Slowly add the strained tomatoes and cook until thickened. Adding liquid gradually to the butter and flour mixture lets the starch disperse evenly, preventing lumps. Cooking until thickened fully activates the flour, giving a smooth sauce with the right body before the shrimps go in.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Okrafits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, shrimp, flour, onion, pepper. 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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