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Salad

Shrimp Salad

A salad of shrimp dressed with a vinaigrette of egg, oil, vinegar, mustard, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Shrimp Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dressing

  1. Wash and cut the shrimp in half.

  2. Beat the egg whites in a saucepan. Add the yolks to the beaten whites.

  3. Slowly add the salad oil while stirring.

  4. Add salt, pepper, vinegar, and a little mustard.

  5. Stir until thickened.

  6. Let the dressing cool.

Assemble and serve

  1. Pour the dressing over the shrimp.

  2. Add celery or finely cut lettuce before serving.

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. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Shrimp
Forms the main body of the salad and carries the dressing.
Eggs
Yolks emulsify the oil into the dressing, and cooked whites help thicken it.
Salad oil
Adds richness and fat that smooths the dressing's texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the oil.

The step that matters

Stir until thickened. Oil must be added slowly while stirring so it emulsifies into the egg mixture. Adding it too fast can cause the dressing to break and fail to thicken.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shrimp, egg, pepper, vinegar, mustard. 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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