Name: To Butter Prawns or Shrimps
Ingredients: 1 lb prawns or shrimps; 2 tablespoons butter; 2 tablespoons flour; 1 cup good gravy; 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg; 1/4 teaspoon black pepper; 1/4 teaspoon coarse sea salt; toasted bread, cut into triangles

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

To Butter Prawns or Shrimps

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

Melt the butter in a pan and mix in the flour.
Add the gravy and stir continuously until combined.

Cook and serve

Add the prawns or shrimps, nutmeg, pepper, and salt.
Simmer until cooked through.
Serve with toasted bread arranged around the dish.

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.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together13,015 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Shrimp + buttertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,931 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 or shrimps: Provide the main protein, which firms and turns opaque as it cooks through.
Butter: Adds richness and fat that carries flavour through the sauce.
Flour: Thickens the butter and gravy into a smooth, cohesive sauce.
Gravy: Supplies the liquid base and savoury flavour of the sauce.

The step that matters

Simmer until cooked through. Prawns cook quickly and turn rubbery if overcooked, so they should be removed from heat as soon as they become opaque and firm.

Swap the nutmeg

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

Parsleyfits about as well
Capersfits about as well
Nutmegthe original
Garlicfits about as well

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

Brown Bread461 recipes

White Bread80 recipes

Bread Omelette60 recipes

Oatmeal Bread51 recipes

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To Butter Prawns or Shrimps