Name: Shrimps and Tomatoes
Ingredients: ½ can of tomatoes; 1 slice of onion, chopped; 1 tablespoon of flour; 2 tablespoons of butter; 1 can of shrimps; salt to taste; cayenne pepper to taste; boiled rice for serving

Why it works: Tomato and rice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,065 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Shrimps and Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

Cook the tomatoes with the chopped onion until thick.
Pass the mixture through a sieve.
Thicken the sauce with flour rubbed smooth with butter.

Finish and serve

Wash and dry the shrimps, then heat them in the tomato sauce.
Season with salt and cayenne pepper, and serve over a mound of boiled rice.

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.

Tomato + ricetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,065 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,633 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,433 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes: Form the base of the sauce, giving it body and a bright acidic flavour when cooked down.
Flour: Thickens the sauce as it cooks, giving it a smooth, coating consistency.
Butter: Adds richness and helps the flour blend smoothly into the sauce as a roux.
Shrimps: Provide the main protein, gently heated through in the sauce so they stay tender.

The step that matters

Thicken the sauce with flour rubbed smooth with butter. Flour lumps form if it is added dry or not blended with fat first. Rubbing it smooth with butter lets the starch disperse evenly, so the sauce thickens without graininess.

Swap the tomato

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

Okrafits better
Chivefits better
Potatofits better
Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, flour, butter, shrimp, pepper, rice. 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.

Tomato Soup526 recipes

Cream of Tomato Soup107 recipes

Rice Fritters84 recipes

Tomato Bisque61 recipes

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Shrimps and Tomatoes