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To Dress Shrimps

Shrimp sautéed in butter with salt, black pepper, and red pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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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 ↓

To Dress Shrimps

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a pan, melt the butter over low heat.

  2. Add the shrimps, salt, black pepper, and red pepper.

  3. Cook until the gravy turns a pinkish hue, stirring occasionally.

  4. Continue to stew over low heat until the shrimps are perfectly cooked.

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. Shrimp + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,931 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  2. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylethanol (rose, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Shrimps
Provide the main protein, which turns opaque and firm as it cooks.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour and helping form the sauce.

The step that matters

Keeping the heat low while stewing the shrimp. Shrimp proteins toughen quickly when overheated, so gentle low heat keeps them tender and juicy rather than rubbery.

“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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