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Pickled Shrimp

Shrimp pickled in vinegar with allspice, black pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pickled Shrimp

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Heat the vinegar, salt, and spices in a saucepan.

  2. Pour the hot mixture over the shrimp.

  3. Set aside to cool before serving.

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. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,548 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  3. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Shrimp + peppertop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,692 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylethanol (rose, floral).

  5. Shrimp + vinegartop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together862 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-methylbutanol (malty, whiskey).

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

What each ingredient does

Shrimp
The main ingredient, which soaks up the seasoned vinegar as it cools.
Vinegar
Adds the sharp acidity that gives pickled shrimp their tang.
Allspice
Contributes warm, aromatic flavor to the pickling liquid.
Whole black pepper
Adds a mild, aromatic bite to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Set aside to cool before serving. Letting the shrimp rest in the hot seasoned vinegar as it cools allows the liquid to soak in and the flavors to spread through the shrimp. Serving too early means the flavor has not yet developed.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shrimp, pepper, vinegar. 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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