Name: Shrimp Eggs
Ingredients: 2 hard-boiled eggs; 2 oz. shelled shrimps; 1 oz. butter; watercress

Why it works: Shrimp and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,931 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓

Shrimp Eggs

Ingredients

2 hard-boiled eggs
2 oz. shelled shrimps
1 oz. butter
watercress

Directions

Prepare

Cut the hard-boiled eggs in half and slice a small piece from each end so they can stand upright.

Make and serve

In a mortar, pound the yolks, butter, and shrimps together until well combined and season to taste.
Fill the egg halves with the shrimp mixture and serve on a bed of watercress.
Optionally, substitute two sardines for the shrimps and prepare the mixture in the same way, passing it through a sieve if desired.

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.

Shrimp + buttertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,931 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Shrimp + watercresstop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Egg + watercresstop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together638 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Butter + watercresstop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together842 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Hard-boiled whites form the edible shell, and the yolks give the filling its body.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, helping the pounded yolks and shrimp bind into a smooth paste.
Shrimps: Provide the main savoury flavour and the protein of the filling.

“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.