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Salad

Shrimp Salad

A chilled salad of shrimp, celery, and mayonnaise served on lettuce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,033 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Shrimp Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and combine

  1. Remove the black line from the shrimp and break them into small pieces.

  2. Combine the shrimp with the chopped celery and mayonnaise dressing.

Chill and serve

  1. Chill the mixture on ice until thoroughly cold.

  2. Serve on lettuce leaves and add more mayonnaise if desired.

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. Celery + lettucetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,033 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Shrimp + lettucetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together430 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Shrimp + celerytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together812 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Shrimp
Provides the main body and protein of the salad, with its flesh holding the dressing.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and moisture that contrasts with the soft shrimp.
Mayonnaise dressing
Adds fat and creaminess, binding the shrimp and celery together.

The step that matters

Chill the mixture on ice until thoroughly cold. Cold keeps the mayonnaise dressing thick and stable, so it does not thin or separate and the salad stays firm and crisp.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shrimp, lettuce. 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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