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 ↓
Shrimp Butter, for Sauces, Etc
Ingredients
Directions
Infuse the butter
Pound the shells of 250 shrimp in a mortar until finely crushed.
Mix the crushed shells with 2 ounces of butter.
Place the mixture in a jar and set it in a pan of hot water for 1 hour.
Press the butter through a cloth into cold water.
Strain and finish
Lift the butter from the water, drain it, and press it through a silk sieve.
Work in a slice of fresh butter until well combined.
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.
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Shrimp + buttertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,931 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Shrimp shells
- Provide the shrimp flavour and colour that the butter takes on during infusing.
- Butter
- Acts as the fat that carries the shrimp flavour and forms the body of the finished butter.
- Fresh butter
- Adds fresh dairy richness and a smoother texture when worked into the finished butter.
The step that matters
Pressing the butter into cold water. Cold water firms the butter so it can be lifted and drained cleanly without losing its shape. Fat-soluble flavour compounds from the shells stay dissolved in the butter, so the chilling locks in the infused taste.
“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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