Name: Deviled Shrimp
Ingredients: 1 can tomatoes; ½ cup tomato ketchup; 1 tablespoon butter; red or black pepper to taste; coarse sea salt to taste; cracker crumbs

Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Deviled Shrimp

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.

Stew the tomatoes until nearly done.
Mix in the tomato ketchup and butter thoroughly.
Season with red or black pepper and coarse sea salt to taste.
Cover the mixture with cracker crumbs.
Brown in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

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.

Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Tomato + buttertop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,918 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Tomato + ketchuptop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together754 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ketchup + buttertop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,784 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).