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Shrimps, Curried

A shrimp dish simmered in butter, shallot, curry powder, stock, cream, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,523 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Shrimps, Curried

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sauce

  1. Cut the shrimps in half.

  2. Sauté the shallot in butter until slightly softened.

  3. Add the curry powder and cook for 3 minutes.

  4. Pour in the stock and stir until it boils.

  5. Let it simmer gently for 15 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the shrimps, cream, lemon juice, and season to taste.

  2. Heat thoroughly and serve in ramekins.

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. Shallot + lemontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,523 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  4. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Butter + shallottop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Shrimps
Provide the main protein, cooked gently so they stay tender in the sauce.
Butter
Carries the shallot and curry powder, adding richness and a rounded flavour.
Shallot
Adds mild sweetness and aromatic depth as it softens in the butter.
Curry powder
Supplies the main spiced aroma and flavour of the dish once cooked briefly in fat.
Cream
Adds body and a smooth, silky texture to the sauce.
Stock
Forms the liquid base of the sauce and carries the other flavours.

The step that matters

Adding the shrimps and cream to the simmering sauce. Shrimp turn firm and rubbery when overcooked, so they should be added near the end and heated only until just cooked. Cream can separate if it boils hard, so keep the heat gentle once it goes in.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shrimp, butter, shallot, cream):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Mangofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against shrimp, butter, shallot, cream. 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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