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Shrimps, Potted

A pie of shrimp baked with mashed potatoes, gravy, and butter or egg yolk topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Shrimps, Potted

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Grease a pie dish.

Assemble

  1. Layer a thin layer of mashed potatoes on the bottom.

  2. Add the shrimp and sprinkle with onion, salt, and pepper.

  3. Pour in the gravy and cover with more mashed potatoes.

  4. Roughen the top with a fork or smooth it with a knife.

  5. Dot the top with small pieces of butter or brush with egg yolk for a shiny finish.

Bake

  1. Bake for about 1 hour until the crust is well browned.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  3. Meat + shrimptop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together584 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Potato + shrimptop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together520 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the mashed layers that enclose the filling and brown into a crust.
Meat (shrimp)
Provides the main filling and its savory flavor.
Gravy
Adds moisture to the filling so it stays moist during baking.
Butter or fat
Adds richness and helps the top brown.
Egg yolk
Brushed on the top to give a shiny, browned finish.

The step that matters

Covering the filling with mashed potato. The potato layers must seal the shrimp and gravy completely, since gaps let moisture escape and the filling dry or stick. Smoothing or roughing the top evenly also controls how evenly the crust browns during baking.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, meat, shrimp, pepper, butter, egg. 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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