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Shrimps Stewed

A creamy shrimp stew made with butter, flour, milk, water, celery seed, nutmeg, salt, pepper, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Shrimps Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Mix the butter and flour together in a stew pan and let it fry for 1 minute.

  2. Stir in the hot milk and water, and bring to a boil.

  3. Add the celery seed, nutmeg, salt, and pepper, then add the shrimps.

Finish and serve

  1. Heat the shrimps until hot but not boiling.

  2. Beat the yolks with 2 tablespoons of milk and stir them in.

  3. Remove from heat when scalding hot; do not let it boil.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 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. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  4. Celery + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,331 recipes

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

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 and flavor of the dish.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavor into the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the sauce as it cooks with the butter and liquid.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the sauce when gently heated.
Milk
Forms the creamy base of the sauce and adds richness.

The step that matters

Remove from heat when scalding hot; do not let it boil.. Egg yolks added to the sauce can curdle and turn grainy if they overheat or boil, so the sauce should be taken off the heat once hot.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Celerythe original

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