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Salad

Shrimp Salad

A chilled salad of shrimp and celery dressed with a mustard‑vinegar mayonnaise, served on lettuce with hard‑boiled egg garnish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Shrimp Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salad

  1. Rinse the shrimps in cold water and let them drain in a colander.

  2. Wash the celery stalks, split them lengthwise into 4 or 5 pieces, and cut them into ½ inch lengths.

  3. Combine the shrimps and celery in a large bowl.

Make the dressing

  1. In a skillet, heat the vinegar, mustard, salt, and pepper without boiling.

  2. In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks and olive oil together, then stir in the milk.

  3. Gradually mix the egg mixture into the hot vinegar mixture until thickened, but do not boil.

  4. Allow the dressing to cool, then mix it with the salad ingredients.

Serve

  1. Arrange head lettuce leaves around a serving dish, add the salad, and garnish with quartered hard boiled eggs.

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 + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  4. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Mustard + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the dressing as they set gently with the warm vinegar mixture, and add richness.
Olive oil
Adds fat that gives the dressing a smooth, rounded body.
Cider vinegar
Provides acidity that sharpens the dressing and balances the richness of the yolks.
Shrimps
Supply the main protein and tender texture of the salad.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and a fresh, mild crunch against the soft shrimp.

The step that matters

Gradually mix the egg mixture into the hot vinegar mixture. Egg yolks thicken when gently heated but scramble if they get too hot or are added all at once. Adding the mixture slowly and keeping the dressing below boiling lets it thicken smoothly.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shrimp, cider, vinegar, mustard, pepper, egg, olive):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against shrimp, cider, vinegar, mustard, pepper, egg, olive. 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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