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Shrimps, Boiled

Boiled shrimp cooked in salted water with optional aromatics.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,973 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Shrimps, Boiled

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Bring 1 gallon of water to a boil and add 5 to 6 ounces of coarse sea salt.

  2. Skim the water carefully and add the shrimps when it is boiling quickly.

  3. Alternatively, place the shrimps in a wire basket and lower it into the boiling water.

Cook and cool

  1. Boil the shrimps for 5 to 7 minutes, depending on their size.

  2. Drain the shrimps and spread them out on a clean cloth to cool.

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. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Lemon + minttop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,998 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Thyme + minttop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together285 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Shrimps (in the method)
Are the main ingredient, cooked briefly in salted boiling water until opaque and tender.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the boiling water so the shrimp are lightly seasoned as they cook.

The step that matters

Boiling the shrimps for the right time. Shrimp turn firm and rubbery when overcooked, and the proteins tighten as they heat. Cooking for only the time suited to their size keeps them tender and juicy.

Swap the lemon

The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (thyme, mint):

  1. Limefits about as well
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Red currantfits less well
  4. Orangefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against thyme, mint. 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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