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Shrimp Salad

A salad of boiled shrimp dressed with a vinaigrette of egg yolks, cayenne, black pepper, mustard, sea salt, vinegar, and olive oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Shrimp Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the shrimp

  1. Boil the shrimp in salted water and remove the shells.

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, mix the egg yolks until smooth.

  2. Add cayenne pepper, black pepper, mustard, coarse sea salt, vinegar, and olive oil to the egg yolks.

  3. Mix thoroughly and pour the dressing over the shrimp.

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. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Vinegar + olivetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  5. Pepper + olivetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Shrimp
Forms the main body of the salad, providing protein and a firm, tender bite.
Hard-boiled egg yolks
Emulsify with the oil and mustard to give the dressing a smooth, creamy body.
Mustard
Helps stabilize the emulsion and adds a sharp, pungent flavor.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the rich yolks and oil.
Olive oil
Adds fat that carries flavor and contributes to the dressing's smooth texture.

The step that matters

Mix the egg yolks until smooth before adding the other dressing ingredients. Mashing the yolks fully before adding oil and vinegar lets them form a stable emulsion. If lumps remain or the oil is added too fast, the dressing can separate and look greasy rather than creamy.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits about as well
  3. Cucumberfits about as well
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shrimp, egg, pepper, vinegar, 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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