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Shrimp Paste

A preserved shrimp paste made by boiling shrimp, crushing shells, simmering with butter, salt, cayenne, and hot water, then jarred with melted butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Shrimp and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,931 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓

Shrimp Paste

Ingredients

Directions

Make the shrimp stock

  1. Boil the shrimp for 30 minutes.

  2. Once cool, shell them.

  3. In a mortar, pound the shells to a paste.

  4. Add the butter and season with salt and cayenne.

  5. Add the hot water and simmer for 1 hour.

  6. Strain the mixture.

Make the paste

  1. Pound the edible parts of the shrimp in the mortar, moisten with the liquid from the shells, and season with salt and cayenne.

  2. Heat the mixture in a double saucepan surrounded by water until warmed through.

Jar and store

  1. Fill jars three-fourths full with the mixture and pour melted butter over to fill the jar.

  2. Store in a cool place.

  3. When ready to use, remove the butter.

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. Shrimp + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,931 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  2. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Shrimp + peppertop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,692 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylethanol (rose, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Shrimp
Provides the main flavor and the meat that is pounded into the paste.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and sealed over the top it helps protect the paste in storage.

The step that matters

Pound the shells to a paste before simmering. Shell fragments left coarse will not break down well in the liquid, so a smooth paste needs thorough pounding of the shells first. Simmering then draws flavor from them into the water.

“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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