Why it works: Parsley and capers match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,550 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Cream Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sauce
Heat the cream in a saucepan until very hot, but do not let it boil.
Season the cream with salt and add shrimp or anchovy essence or chopped parsley if desired.
For baked salmon, strain the liquor from the tin and stir it into the cream without thickening.
Serve
Serve this sauce with fish, adding chopped capers for cod-fish if desired.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Parsley + caperstop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,550 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Shrimp + caperstop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together179 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
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Shrimp + parsleytop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,723 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
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Cream + shrimptop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,067 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Cream + caperstop 27% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together282 recipes
Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cream
- Forms the body of the sauce and gives it a rich, smooth texture.
The step that matters
Heat the cream until very hot without boiling. Boiling cream can separate or scorch it and make the sauce grainy. Heating it gently until hot keeps it smooth and ready to season.
Swap the parsley
The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, shrimp, capers):
- Garlicfits better
- Tarragonfits better
- Parsleythe original
- Dillfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against cream, shrimp, capers. 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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