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Shrimp Sandwiches

A sandwich with cooked shrimp mixed with mayonnaise, anchovy paste, lemon juice, and salt, served on buttered brown bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Pound the shrimps in a bowl.

  2. Mix in mayonnaise, anchovy paste, lemon juice, and salt.

Assemble and serve

  1. Cut thin slices of brown bread and lightly butter them.

  2. Spread the shrimp mixture on one slice and top with another slice.

  3. Cut the sandwich into finger lengths.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Shrimp + anchovytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together440 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

  3. Anchovy + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,260 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

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

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

  5. Anchovy + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked shrimps
Provide the main filling, with a soft, finely pounded texture once mashed.
Mayonnaise
Adds moisture and richness, binding the shrimp into a spreadable filling.
Anchovy paste
Adds a salty, savoury depth to the shrimp filling.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich mayonnaise and shrimp.
Brown bread
Forms the structure of the sandwich and holds the filling.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour to the bread and helps keep it from soaking up moisture.

The step that matters

Pound the shrimps. Pounding breaks the shrimp into a fine, cohesive texture so the mayonnaise and seasonings blend evenly. Shrimp left in large pieces will not spread well and can make the sandwich hard to bite through.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Avocadofits about as well
  3. Coconutfits less well
  4. Plumfits less well

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