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Buttered, and Shrimps

A shrimp and egg mixture cooked in butter and milk, served on buttered toast and garnished with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Buttered, and Shrimps

Ingredients

Directions

Make the omelette

  1. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat.

  2. Add the beaten eggs, milk, and picked shrimps.

  3. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  4. Stir until the mixture thickens.

Serve

  1. Spread the mixture on hot buttered toast.

  2. Garnish with parsley and small heaps of shrimps.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + shrimptop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,931 recipes

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

  4. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into a soft, creamy mass that forms the body of the omelette as they thicken.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour, and keeps the mixture from sticking to the pan.
Shrimps
Provide the main flavour and a tender, slightly firm texture in the mixture.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness, making the eggs set more tender.

The step that matters

Stir until the mixture thickens. Over low heat the eggs set gradually. Stirring keeps them moving so they form soft curds rather than scrambling unevenly or sticking, and removing the pan at the right moment prevents them from over-setting and turning dry.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Dillfits about as well
  4. Cinnamonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, milk, shrimp, pepper. 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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