Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Shrimp Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the stock
Remove the heads and skins from the fresh shrimps.
Stew the heads and skins in a small pot of boiling water for 1 hour to extract their flavor.
Strain the liquid and use it to melt the butter in a pan.
Finish the sauce
Add the shelled shrimps to the butter and liquid, and simmer gently for about 20 minutes.
Season with coarse sea salt and add a little cream before serving.
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.
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Shrimp + buttertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,931 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Shrimp + creamtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,067 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fresh shrimps
- Provide the main flavor and tender texture of the sauce once simmered.
- Butter
- Adds richness and carries the shrimp flavor through the sauce.
- Cream
- Adds smoothness and a mellow body to the finished sauce.
The step that matters
Simmering the shrimps gently. Gentle heat keeps the shrimp proteins tender; vigorous boiling toughens them and can make the sauce grainy or tough.
“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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