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Shrimp Pie

A baked rice and shrimp casserole with tomato and egg glaze.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and tomato 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 ↓

Shrimp Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Assemble

  1. In a bowl, combine the hot rice with butter, beaten eggs, chopped tomatoes, salt, and pepper.

  2. In a baking dish, spread a thick layer of the rice mixture.

  3. Add a layer of shrimps on top.

  4. Repeat layers until the dish is full.

Glaze and bake

  1. Glaze the top with egg white.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until set.

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. Rice + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,065 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Shrimp + ricetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,055 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-methylbutanol (malty, whiskey).

  5. Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked shrimps
Provide the main filling and savory flavor in each layer.
Rice
Forms the soft, bulky base that holds the layers together.
Eggs
Bind the rice mixture and set during baking to give structure.
Tomatoes
Add moisture and a mild acidity to the rice mixture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat for a softer texture.

The step that matters

Bake until set. The eggs in the rice mixture must coagulate fully to hold the layers firm when cut. Underbaking leaves a loose, wet interior, while the moisture from the tomatoes and shrimp needs the oven's heat to evaporate and firm the custard-like binding.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shrimp, rice, butter, egg, 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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