Name: Shrimp Sauce
Ingredients: 1 pound shrimp; 2 tablespoons anchovy liquor; 2 tablespoons butter; 1 tablespoon lemon juice

Why it works: Shrimp and anchovy work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 440 recipes. Both carry hexanol, which smells green, fruity. The science ↓

Shrimp Sauce

Ingredients

1 pound shrimp
2 tablespoons anchovy liquor
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Directions

Place the shrimp in a saucepan with anchovy liquor and butter.
Melt the butter and boil for 5 minutes.
Squeeze in lemon juice and stir everything together.

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 + anchovytop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together440 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).
Shrimp + buttertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,931 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Anchovy + buttertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,697 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Anchovy + lemontop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,080 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,227 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Shrimp: Provides the main protein and flavor base of the sauce.
Butter: Adds richness and carries flavor, giving the sauce a silky body.
Anchovy liquor: Adds savory depth and umami to the sauce.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and seafood flavors.

“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.