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Shrimps in Butter

Shrimps in Butter is a quick shrimp dish cooked in butter with lime juice, cayenne pepper, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Lime and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,491 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Shrimps in Butter

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a chafing dish, melt the butter.

  2. Add the shrimp and toss to coat.

  3. Stir in the lime juice and cayenne pepper.

  4. Add the water and cook for three minutes.

  5. Serve immediately.

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. Lime + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,491 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Butter + shrimptop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,931 recipes

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

  3. Shrimp + limetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together808 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

  5. 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

Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying the flavor of the other ingredients.
New orleans shrimp
The main protein, which is already cooked and only needs gentle heating through.
Lime juice
Adds acidity that brightens the buttery sauce and balances its richness.
Cayenne pepper
Adds a light background heat and aroma to the butter sauce.

The step that matters

Add the water and cook for three minutes. The shrimp are already cooked, so extended heat toughens their proteins and makes them rubbery. Keep the cooking brief and serve right away.

Swap the lime

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

  1. Lemonfits about as well
  2. Mangofits about as well
  3. Limethe original
  4. Coconutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, shrimp, 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.

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