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Little Moulds of Shrimp Pur&E

A chilled custard of shrimp and gelatin set in small moulds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Gelatin and cream match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,628 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Little Moulds of Shrimp Pur&E

Oven, in the book's wordsA gentle oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. In a bowl, combine boiled milk and eggs to make a custard.

  2. Stir in soaked gelatin and strain through a sieve.

  3. Pound the picked shrimps with the shrimp anchovy until smooth.

  4. Mix the shrimp paste into the custard thoroughly. Add Devonshire cream and mix well.

Set and serve

  1. Set dariole moulds in ice and fill them with the mixture.

  2. Once cold and firm, turn the moulds out onto a plate. Decorate the dish with curled endive.

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. Gelatin + creamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Shrimp + anchovytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together440 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

  3. Egg + anchovytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,330 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Anchovy + endivetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together35 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Anchovy + creamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together798 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the custard as they cool, giving the moulds their structure.
Gelatin
Sets the mixture so it holds its shape when turned out.
Boiled milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, adding body and softness.
Moulds of shrimps
Provide the main shrimp flavour and texture through the set custard.
Devonshire cream
Adds richness and fat, giving a smoother, creamier mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Set dariole moulds in ice and fill them with the mixture.. The mixture must be cold enough to set firmly before turning out. Gelatin sets only as it chills, so the moulds need to stay cold while filling and cooling.

Swap the endive

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, gelatin, shrimp, anchovy, cream):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Endivethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, gelatin, shrimp, anchovy, cream. 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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