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Salad

Shrimp Salad

A salad of shrimp, cucumber pickles, eggs, and a butter‑vinegar dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,281 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Shrimp Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ingredients

  1. Wash the shrimp in cold water and break them into small bits with a fork.

  2. Cut the cucumber pickles into squares.

  3. Chop the whites of the hard boiled eggs finely.

  4. Cream the yolks with ½ cup melted butter.

Mix the salad

  1. Mix the shrimp, pickles, chopped egg whites, and creamed yolks together.

Make the dressing

  1. In a saucepan, heat the vinegar, mustard, salt, pepper, and ½ cup melted butter.

  2. When warm, add the beaten eggs and stir gently until the mixture thickens.

Combine and serve

  1. Combine the dressing with the shrimp mixture to your desired wetness.

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 + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,281 recipes

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

  2. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,734 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  4. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  5. Shrimp + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,931 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 body of the salad and provides its savoury flavour and texture.
Eggs
Beaten eggs thicken the warm dressing as their proteins set with gentle heat.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the dressing and yolk mixture.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that sharpens the dressing and balances the richness of the butter and eggs.
Cucumber pickles
Add crunch and a tangy, acidic bite to the salad.

The step that matters

Stirring the beaten eggs into the warm dressing. Egg proteins set with heat, so if the mixture is too hot or stirred too vigorously the eggs can scramble and curdle instead of thickening smoothly. Gentle, steady stirring over moderate warmth lets the dressing thicken evenly.

Swap the cucumber

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shrimp, egg, butter, vinegar, mustard, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Horseradishfits about as well
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shrimp, egg, butter, vinegar, mustard, 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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