Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Creamed Shrimps with Green Peas
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sauce
Heat the cream in a saucepan until hot.
In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and flour until smooth.
Stir the butter and flour mixture into the hot cream.
Add and serve
Add the shrimps, beaten eggs, and peas, stirring until thoroughly heated.
Serve the mixture on toast or toasted crackers.
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.
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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + shrimptop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,931 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + peastop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,887 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cream
- Forms the rich, smooth body of the sauce and carries the other ingredients.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat that makes the sauce smooth and silky.
- Flour
- Thickens the sauce as it heats, giving it body.
- Eggs
- Add richness and help thicken the mixture when gently heated.
- Shrimps
- Provide the main protein and savory flavor of the dish.
The step that matters
Stirring in the eggs while heating. Eggs can scramble if the mixture is too hot or heated too quickly. Keeping the heat moderate and stirring constantly lets them thicken the sauce smoothly.
Swap the peas
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, butter, shrimp, flour, egg):
- Almondfits better
- Macadamia nutfits better
- Peanutfits better
- Peasthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cream, butter, shrimp, flour, egg. 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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