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Potted Prawns, or Shrimps

A dish of boiled prawns or shrimps simmered with anchovies, clarified butter, and spices, then cooled and stored.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Potted Prawns, or Shrimps

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Reserve the heads and shells of the prawns or shrimps.

  2. Pound the prawns and shells with the anchovies in a mortar.

  3. Rub the mixture through a fine sieve into a stewpan.

Cook

  1. Add the picked shrimps and clarified butter to the stewpan.

  2. Season with nutmeg, cayenne pepper, and salt.

  3. Simmer over low heat for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Pot and store

  1. Once nearly cold, transfer to pots and pour a little clarified butter on top.

  2. Store in a cool place until ready to use.

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. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  3. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Shrimp + peppertop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,692 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylethanol (rose, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Prawns or shrimps
Provide the main body and sweet, delicate flavour of the potted mixture.
Clarified butter
Adds richness and moisture, and its layer on top seals the potted mixture from air.
Anchovies
Add savoury depth and saltiness that rounds out the shellfish flavour.

The step that matters

Simmer over low heat. Gentle heat keeps the shellfish tender and the butter from browning or separating, while stirring prevents the mixture from sticking and scorching on the base of the stewpan.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shrimp, butter, 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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