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Shrimps, Bordelaise

A shrimp and ham sauce thickened with flour, served in stock and tomato sauce.

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. Pour in the stock or consommé, tomato sauce, bay leaf, and parsley.

  5. Cook until the sauce is smooth and thick, seasoning with salt and pepper to taste.

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 sauce into a smooth, stable body as it cooks.
Butter
Carries the aromatics and adds richness to the sauce base.
Shrimps
Provide the main seafood flavour and tender texture in the sauce.
Stock or consommé
Supplies the liquid that forms the body of the sauce.
Tomato sauce or mushroom ketchup
Adds acidity and savoury depth, giving the sauce its colour and tang.

The step that matters

Cooking the flour in the butter. Flour must cook briefly in the fat before liquid is added; this removes raw starch taste and helps it thicken smoothly without lumps. Adding liquid too soon or skipping the cook time leaves a pasty, floury sauce.

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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