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Salad

Shrimp Salad

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,409 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Shrimp Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the shrimp

  1. Remove the intestinal vein from the shrimp.

  2. Cover the shrimp with cold water and let sit for 15 minutes.

  3. Drain the shrimp and add chopped cucumbers and pickles.

Dress and serve

  1. Mix with mayonnaise dressing 1 hour before serving.

  2. Serve on lettuce leaves.

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. Cucumber + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,409 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Celery + cucumbertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,745 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Shrimp + cucumbertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together386 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Shrimp
Forms the main protein body of the salad.
Mayonnaise
Adds fat and creaminess that binds the salad and keeps it moist.
Celery
Adds crisp texture that contrasts with the soft shrimp.
Cucumber
Adds cool, crisp moisture and freshness.
Pickles
Adds acidity and tang that balances the rich mayonnaise.

The step that matters

Drain the shrimp well before mixing. Excess water left on the shrimp and cucumber dilutes the mayonnaise dressing, making the salad watery and loose instead of creamy.

Swap the celery

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against shrimp, cucumber, 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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