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Shrimp Sauce

A sauce made with shrimp, melted butter, lemon pickle, and vinegar.

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

  1. Remove the shells from the shrimp.

  2. In a pan, heat the melted butter.

  3. Add the shrimp, lemon pickle, and vinegar.

  4. Heat the mixture until warm.

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. Lemon + vinegartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,334 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Butter + vinegartop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,513 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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 body of the sauce.
Melted butter
Carries flavor and gives the sauce a rich, smooth texture.
Lemon pickle
Adds tangy, savory flavor that brightens the butter.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor of the sauce.

The step that matters

Heat the mixture until warm. Gentle heat keeps the butter from separating and the shrimp from toughening. Overheating shrimp makes proteins contract, leaving them rubbery and dry.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Mangofits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Avocadofits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shrimp, butter, vinegar. 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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