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Shrimps, Bordelaise

A creamy shrimp dish with ham, onion, and tomato sauce, finished with parsley.

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

Shrimps, Bordelaise

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the diced shrimps, chopped ham, and onion; sauté until the onion is translucent.

  3. Stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute.

  4. Gradually add the stock or consommé, stirring until smooth.

  5. Add the tomato sauce or mushroom ketchup, bay leaf, and parsley.

  6. Season with salt and pepper, and cook until the sauce is thickened.

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. Onion + parsleytop 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

Flour
Thickens the butter and stock into a smooth sauce as it cooks.
Butter
Carries the onion and seafood flavour and adds richness to the sauce.
Cooked shrimps
Provide the main seafood flavour and texture of the dish.
Stock or consommé
Forms the liquid base that the flour thickens into the sauce.
Tomato sauce or mushroom ketchup
Adds acidity and savoury depth to the sauce.

The step that matters

Stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute. Flour must be cooked briefly in the fat before liquid is added; this cooks out its raw taste and lets it thicken smoothly without lumps.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Okrafits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shrimp, ham, flour, butter, onion, parsley, 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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