Why it works: Shrimp and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,931 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓
Shrimp Butter
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the shells
Remove the meat from the shrimp and dry the shells.
Pound the shells in a mortar with the butter.
Make the butter
Place the mixture in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring until it clarifies, about 5 minutes.
Strain through a cloth, pressing hard, and let it drop into cold water.
Once hard, remove and place in a warm bowl, stirring until it reaches the desired color.
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.
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Shrimp + buttertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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 shells
- Provide the concentrated shellfish flavor and color that the butter takes on.
- Butter
- Carries the shell flavor and fat, and sets firm again when chilled.
The step that matters
Clarifying over medium heat. Heating the butter gently lets the milk solids and water separate from the fat, and the mixture can scorch if the heat is too high. Watch it closely so the fat stays clear and the flavor stays clean.
“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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