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Shrimp Forcemeat, Plain

A shrimp forcemeat made with bread crumbs, butter, egg, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Shrimp Forcemeat, Plain

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mix bread crumbs and chopped shrimp in equal parts.

  2. Add 2 tablespoons of butter and 1 beaten egg to the mixture to form a paste.

  3. Season with salt, pepper, cayenne, and essence of shrimp or anchovies as desired.

  4. For white fish, use a more delicate seasoning.

  5. Optionally, add 1 tablespoon of milk and a small quantity of parsley for flavor.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Bread + buttertop 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. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Shrimp + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,931 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread crumbs
Form the body of the forcemeat and absorb moisture from the butter and egg.
Chopped shrimp
Provide the main flavor and texture of the forcemeat.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, keeping the paste soft and tender.
Beaten egg
Binds the crumbs and shrimp together into a paste that holds its shape.

Swap the parsley

The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, shrimp, butter, egg, pepper, milk):

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Cinnamonfits less well
  4. Capersfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, shrimp, butter, egg, pepper, milk. 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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