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Moulded Shrimp Salad

A chilled shrimp salad set in gelatin, served on lettuce with mayonnaise.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and lettuce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,655 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Moulded Shrimp Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Heat the tomato soup with the onion and green pepper until boiling, then boil for 2 minutes.

  2. Soak the gelatin in ½ cup cold water for 5 minutes.

  3. Add the soaked gelatin to the hot soup.

  4. Stir in the shrimp.

Mould and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into molds rinsed in cold water.

  2. Chill on ice until thoroughly set.

  3. Remove from molds and place on lettuce leaves with mayonnaise.

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. Tomato + lettucetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,655 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Onion + lettucetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,562 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + lettucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,037 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatin
Sets the liquid into a firm mould that holds its shape when turned out.
Shrimp
Provides the main protein and substance, suspended evenly through the set mixture.
Tomato soup
Forms the flavour base and liquid that the gelatin sets.
Mayonnaise
Adds fat and richness that softens the sharp tomato flavour.

The step that matters

Add the soaked gelatin to the hot soup. Gelatin must be fully softened in cold water first, then dissolved into hot liquid, so it sets evenly. Undissolved clumps leave weak spots and a grainy texture in the finished mould.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Cucumberfits better
  3. Okrafits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, gelatin, shrimp, pepper, 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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