Name: Shrimp Pie
Ingredients: 2 quarts of shrimps; 1 small loaf of bread; 1 tablespoon of butter; 1 quart of tomatoes; milk (for soaking bread); black pepper; coarse sea salt

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Shrimp Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Stew the tomatoes until nearly done.
Crumb the bread into a little milk and mix in the butter, black pepper, and coarse sea salt.

Assemble and bake

Layer the bottom of a baking dish with bread crumbs, then add a layer of shrimps, followed by a layer of tomatoes.
Repeat the layers, finishing with a layer of bread crumbs on top.
Bake in an earthenware or porcelain-lined silver dish at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Bread + tomatotop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,013 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Shrimps: Form the main filling and provide the dish's core flavour and protein.
Bread: Soaked in milk, it forms soft layers that absorb moisture and hold the pie together.
Tomatoes: Add moisture and acidity, creating a sauce that flavours the layers as they bake.
Butter: Adds fat and richness to the bread crumbs, helping them brown golden in the oven.

Swap the tomato

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

Potatofits better
Capsicumfits better
Tomatothe original
Asparagusfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against shrimp, bread, butter, milk, pepper. 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.