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Shrimp Sauce

A sauce made with shrimp, fish sauce or anchovy liquid, butter, and lemon, served in cups or boats.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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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 Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the shrimp thoroughly.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, combine the shrimp, fish sauce or anchovy liquid, and melted butter.

  2. Bring to a boil and cook for 5 minutes.

  3. Squeeze in the juice of half a lemon and toss to combine.

Serve

  1. Serve in cups or boats.

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

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

  2. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

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

  3. Shrimp + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Shrimp + fish saucetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together349 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Fish sauce + buttertop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together141 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Shrimps
Provide the main seafood flavour and the body of the sauce.
Fish sauce or anchovy liquid
Adds savoury, salty depth that rounds out the seafood flavour.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour and giving the sauce a smooth texture.
Lemon
Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and seafood.

The step that matters

Bring to a boil and cook for 5 minutes. Boiling the butter with the shrimp can separate the fat and toughen the shrimp if overcooked. Watch the heat so the shrimp turn opaque and the sauce stays emulsified and smooth.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shrimp, fish sauce, butter):

  1. Coconutfits better
  2. Mangofits better
  3. Limefits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shrimp, fish sauce, butter. 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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