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Shrimp Salad

A chilled shrimp and celery salad dressed with a mustard vinaigrette.

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

  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 heated vinegar mixture until thickened, but do not boil.

  4. Let the dressing cool, then mix it with the shrimp and celery.

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 and add richness when gently heated with the vinegar mixture.
Olive oil
Adds fat to the dressing, giving it a smoother mouthfeel and richer flavour.
Cider vinegar
Provides acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness of the yolks.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and fresh, mildly vegetal flavour to the salad.

The step that matters

Gradually mix the egg mixture into the heated vinegar mixture. Adding the egg too quickly or letting the mixture boil can scramble the yolks and curdle the dressing. Adding it slowly while stirring tempers the eggs so they 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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