Skip to main content
Main

Shrimp Pie

A pie filled with shrimp, tomatoes, stock, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Shrimp Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. In a saucepan, combine tomatoes, browned flour, parsley, onion, salt, cayenne pepper, and stock, then cook for 5 minutes.

  2. Strain the mixture.

  3. Add the chopped shrimp, butter, and Worcestershire sauce to the strained mixture.

Serve

  1. Serve in cooked pastry.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 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

Peeled boiled shrimp
Forms the main body of the filling and provides the seafood flavor.
Browned flour
Thickens the sauce and adds a toasted, nutty flavor.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel to the filling.
Stock
Provides the liquid base that carries the seasonings and thickens with the flour.

The step that matters

Straining the mixture. Straining removes solids from the cooked base so the sauce is smooth. Adding shrimp only after straining keeps them tender rather than overcooked.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Okrafits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shrimp, tomato, sauce, butter, parsley, pepper, flour. 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesTomato BisqueTomato Bisque61 recipesCream Tomato SoupCream Tomato Soup28 recipes