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Shrimp Kromeskies

Shrimp balls wrapped in bacon, fried in lard, served with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Shrimp Kromeskies

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the shrimp mixture

  1. In a clean saucepan, combine chopped shrimps, white sauce, egg yolks, pepper, salt, and nutmeg.

  2. Stir over low heat for 3-4 minutes to set the eggs.

  3. Spread the mixture 1 inch thick on a plate and let it cool and stiffen.

  4. Cut into equal portions and shape into corks or balls.

Wrap and fry

  1. Boil bacon for 20 minutes, let it cool, then slice thinly to cover the shrimp balls.

  2. Wrap each shrimp ball in bacon and refrigerate if not using immediately.

  3. Dip the wrapped balls in frying batter and fry in hot lard until crisp.

  4. Drain excess fat and serve immediately, garnished with parsley.

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. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  4. Shrimp + saucetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,423 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Shrimps
Provide the main filling and savoury flavour of the balls.
Egg yolks
Set when heated, binding the shrimp mixture so it holds its shape.
White sauce
Adds moisture and creaminess, keeping the filling soft rather than dry.
Bacon
Wraps the balls, adding salty, smoky fat that flavours the filling as it cooks.
Frying batter
Forms a crisp, golden coating when fried in hot fat.

The step that matters

Stirring the shrimp mixture over low heat. Gentle heat sets the egg yolks gradually so the mixture thickens without scrambling. Overheating makes the eggs curdle and turn grainy, and the balls then fail to bind.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shrimp, sauce, egg, pepper, parsley. 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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