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Shrimps, Potted

Shrimps, Potted is a dish of shrimps cooked with butter, mace, cayenne pepper, and nutmeg, then cooled and covered with melted butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Shrimps, Potted

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine the shelled shrimps, fresh butter, pounded mace, cayenne pepper, and nutmeg in a stewpan.

  2. Heat the mixture gradually over low heat, ensuring it does not boil.

  3. Once heated, pour the mixture into small pots.

  4. Allow to cool, then cover with melted butter to exclude air.

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. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Mace + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Mace and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 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

Shrimps
Provide the main flavour and body of the potted mixture.
Fresh butter
Carries the flavour and sets firm when cool, sealing the shrimp against air.
Mace
Adds a warm, aromatic spice note that complements the shrimp.

The step that matters

Heating gently without boiling. Keeping the heat low and avoiding a boil stops the butter from separating and the shrimp from toughening, so the mixture stays smooth and tender.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Clovefits less well
  4. Thymefits less well

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