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Shrimps

A dish of fried shrimp mixed with a flour‑milk sauce served on fried bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Shrimps

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Fry the rounds of bread in butter until pale golden, then drain on kitchen paper.

Make the shrimp filling

  1. In a small saucepan, fry the shrimps in butter for 1-2 minutes.

  2. Mix flour smoothly with milk and pour over the shrimps.

  3. Season with anchovy sauce and cayenne pepper.

  4. Stir until the flour is cooked.

Serve

  1. Pile the shrimp mixture on the fried bread.

  2. Place the assembled dish on a hot dish.

  3. Serve garnished with a folded napkin or fancy dish-paper.

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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  4. Shrimp + anchovytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together440 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

  5. Anchovy + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,260 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Shrimps
Provide the main protein and flavour of the filling, cooked briefly in butter.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce that binds the shrimp filling.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, which the flour thickens as it cooks.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, frying the shrimp and browning the bread.
Rounds of bread
Form the crisp base that holds the shrimp mixture.

The step that matters

Stir until the flour is cooked. Raw flour tastes pasty and will not thicken properly. Stirring while it cooks in the milk keeps the sauce smooth and removes the raw flour taste.

“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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