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Scalloped Prawns

A baked dish of boiled prawn meat in a butter‑flour‑milk sauce topped with breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Scalloped Prawns

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the sauce

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat.

  3. Stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute.

  4. Gradually add the milk, stirring until thickened.

  5. Season with salt and pepper.

Assemble and bake

  1. Combine the Prawn meat with the sauce.

  2. Transfer the mixture to a baking dish and top with breadcrumbs.

  3. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

  4. Serve hot.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Meat + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,703 recipes

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

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Prawns
Provide the main protein and bulk of the dish.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavour through the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce that holds the prawns together.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, setting into a creamy texture when thickened.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping through browning in the oven.

The step that matters

Gradually add the milk, stirring until thickened. Adding cold milk all at once to hot roux can cause lumps. Adding it slowly while stirring lets the starch disperse evenly, giving a smooth sauce that thickens as it heats.

“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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