Name: Shrimp Salad
Ingredients: 1 pint shrimps; 1 teaspoon red bell pepper, finely chopped; 2-3 pint cucumbers, peeled and diced (or crisp celery); 1-2 teaspoons coarse sea salt; 2 tablespoons vinegar; 1 cup mayonnaise dressing (or 1 cup butter dressing or bottled salad dressing with 2 tablespoons whipped cream); 2 tablespoons oil (optional); 1 tablespoon whole capers (optional); Lettuce for garnish

Why it works: Capers and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 372 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Shrimp Salad

Ingredients

1 pint shrimps
1 teaspoon red bell pepper, finely chopped
2-3 pint cucumbers, peeled and diced (or crisp celery)
1-2 teaspoons coarse sea salt
2 tablespoons vinegar
1 cup mayonnaise dressing (or 1 cup butter dressing or bottled salad dressing with 2 tablespoons whipped cream)
2 tablespoons oil (optional)
1 tablespoon whole capers (optional)
Lettuce for garnish

Directions

Prepare

Remove the shells from the shrimps and break them into small pieces. If using canned shrimps, prepare them the same way.
Peel and dice the fresh cucumbers or use crisp celery if cucumbers are unavailable.

Assemble and serve

In a dish, combine the shrimps, cucumbers, red bell pepper, salt, and vinegar; stir well.
If desired, stir 2 tablespoons of oil with the vinegar before adding it to the salad.
Transfer the mixture to a salad dish and top with mayonnaise dressing. Alternatively, use butter dressing or bottled salad dressing mixed with whipped cream.
For variation, sprinkle 1 tablespoon of whole capers over the top after preparing the salad.
Garnish with lettuce.

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.

Capers + lettucetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together372 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Cucumber + lettucetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,409 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Cucumber + caperstop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together303 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,734 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
Pepper + lettucetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,037 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

Shrimps: Provide the main protein and bulk of the salad.
Cucumbers: Add crisp, watery texture and fresh moisture to the salad.
Mayonnaise dressing: Adds creamy richness and fat that coats the shrimp and vegetables.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the rich dressing.

Swap the capers

The recipe marks capers as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shrimp, pepper, cucumber, vinegar, butter, lettuce):

Tarragonfits better
Capersthe original
Dillfits about as well
Garlicfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against shrimp, pepper, cucumber, vinegar, butter, lettuce. 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.