Name: Shrimp-toast a LA Reine
Ingredients: ¾ pint veal gravy; rind of 1 very small lemon, cut extremely thin; 2 tablespoons butter; 2 tablespoons flour; spices (to taste); ¼ pint rich cream; shrimp (amount as desired); squeeze of lemon juice; crust (for toasting)

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Shrimp-toast a LA Reine

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

Boil the veal gravy with the lemon rind for 10 minutes.
Melt the butter in a separate pan.
Mix in the flour and spices.
Pour the gravy into the butter mixture before it begins to brown.
Heat the rich cream in a saucepan until boiling.
Mix the boiling cream with the other ingredients.
Add the shrimp and squeeze lemon juice.
Stir the sauce continuously.

Prepare and serve the toast

Soak the crust in a little cold cream before frying.
Toast and butter the crust.
Moisten the crust with boiling cream.

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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + shrimptop 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).
Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,227 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Veal + lemontop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,580 recipes

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

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

Veal gravy: Forms the liquid base of the sauce, carrying the flavour of the dish.
Butter: Enriches the sauce with fat and helps build the flour-thickened base.
Flour: Thickens the butter and gravy into a smooth, coating sauce.
Rich cream: Adds richness and a silky texture to the sauce and moistens the toast.
Shrimp: Provides the main seafood filling of the sauce.

The step that matters

Pour the gravy into the butter mixture before it begins to brown. Butter and flour that brown before the liquid goes in develop a darker, toasted flavour and colour, and the roux may not thicken smoothly. Adding the gravy at the right moment keeps the sauce pale, smooth and evenly thickened.

Swap the lemon

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

Coconutfits better
Lemonthe original
Avocadofits about as well
Raisinfits about as well

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

Lemon Sauce236 recipes

Veal Patties50 recipes

Beef, Mutton, or Veal Broth6 recipes

Tomato Soup526 recipes

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Shrimp-toast a LA Reine