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Potted Shrimps

Shrimps are cooked in butter, seasoned with white pepper and salt, then covered with clarified butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Shrimp and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,931 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓

Potted Shrimps

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the shrimp

  1. Sprinkle the shelled shrimps with white pepper and salt.

  2. Dot the shrimps with small pieces of butter.

  3. Place them in the oven until hot but not dry.

Pot and seal

  1. Press the hot shrimps into jars.

  2. Once cooled, cover the shrimps with clarified butter.

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

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

  2. White pepper + buttertop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Shrimp + white peppertop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together202 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

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

What each ingredient does

Shrimps
Provide the main protein, whose texture firms and can toughen if overheated.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, coating the shrimp as it melts in the oven.
Clarified butter
Forms a sealed top layer that protects the shrimp from air and helps it keep.

The step that matters

Heating the shrimp in the oven. Shrimp proteins tighten quickly when overheated, so they turn dry and rubbery. Heating only until hot keeps them tender and juicy.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shrimp, 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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