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Shell Fish

A baked shrimp dish with a creamy tomato-based sauce and cracker crumbs topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Shell Fish

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the sauce

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a pan, heat the butter.

  3. Add the flour and stir until smooth.

  4. Mix in the catsup, cream, soup stock, egg yolks, salt, cayenne, and grated onion in that order.

  5. Cook until smooth, then add the shrimps.

Bake and serve

  1. Fill ramekins with the mixture.

  2. Top with cracker crumbs and a little butter.

  3. Bake until golden brown.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Shrimp + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,931 recipes

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

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Shrimp + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Flour and butter 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce and add richness as they set with gentle heat.
Flour
Thickens the butter and stock into a smooth, cohesive sauce.
Butter
Adds fat and flavor, and helps the flour cook into the sauce base.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, giving the sauce a softer, silkier texture.
Shrimps
Provide the main protein and flavor of the dish.

The step that matters

Cook until smooth, then add the shrimps. Egg yolks in the sauce can curdle or scramble if overheated, so the sauce should be cooked gently. Keep the heat moderate and stir so the sauce thickens smoothly before the shrimp go in.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shrimp, flour, butter, cream, egg. 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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