Skip to main content
Main

Shrimp Salad

A chilled salad of shrimp, eggs, celery, walnuts, mayonnaise, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Celery and walnut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 852 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Shrimp Salad

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, combine the shrimp, chopped eggs, chopped celery, and English walnuts.

  2. Mix in mayonnaise and stir in whipped cream until well combined.

  3. Serve very cold.

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. Celery + walnuttop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  2. Shrimp + celerytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together812 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Celery + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,863 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  4. Walnut + creamtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  5. Shrimp + creamtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Shrimp
Provides the main protein and bulk of the salad.
Eggs
Add body and a soft, rich texture through the salad.
Celery
Adds crisp texture that contrasts with the soft shrimp and eggs.
English walnuts
Add crunch and a nutty flavor.
Mayonnaise
Adds fat and moisture, binding the salad together.
Whipped cream
Lightens the dressing and makes it creamier and softer.

The step that matters

Mix in mayonnaise and stir in whipped cream until well combined. Whipped cream deflates and loosens when overworked, and mayonnaise can separate if it warms. Fold gently and keep the salad cold so the dressing stays thick and creamy.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shrimp, egg, walnut, cream):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shrimp, egg, walnut, cream. 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.

More shrimp salad recipes

Avocado 5 See all 90 →

You might also like

Cream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesCelery StewCelery Stew25 recipesCelery CroquettesCelery Croquettes16 recipesCelery Cream SoupCelery Cream Soup15 recipes