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Fricassee of Shrimps

A shrimp fricassee made with butter, onion, herbs, flour, stock, and milk, finished with lobster coral garnish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Fricassee of Shrimps

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Heat the butter in a small saucepan.

  2. Fry the onion, parsley, and thyme until browned.

  3. Add the flour, salt, and pepper, then stir in the stock and milk.

  4. Bring to a boil while stirring continuously.

  5. Add the shrimps and heat through.

  6. Garnish with lobster coral.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

Butter
Fat that cooks the onion and herbs and carries their flavor into the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the stock and milk into a smooth, cohesive sauce.
Shrimps
Provide the main protein; they cook gently in the hot sauce and turn opaque.
Onion
Adds savory sweetness and aroma as it browns in the butter.
Milk
Adds richness and body to the sauce.

The step that matters

Bring to a boil while stirring continuously. Flour thickens liquid only when heated and stirred; stirring prevents lumps forming where flour meets hot liquid, giving a smooth sauce. Stopping early leaves the sauce thin or lumpy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shrimp, butter, parsley, thyme, pepper, flour, milk):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shrimp, butter, parsley, thyme, pepper, flour, 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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