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Sauce

Shrimp Ch Axis’ Ey

A sauce of pounded fresh shrimp mixed with oil, green chilies, onions, salt, and vinegar or lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,800 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Shrimp Ch Axis’ Ey

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Shell the shrimps carefully.

  2. Mince the shrimps quickly with a large sharp knife.

  3. Transfer the minced shrimps to a mortar and pound them into a smooth paste.

Make the sauce

  1. Gradually mix in the salad oil, chopped chilies, minced onions, and salt.

  2. Add vinegar or strained lemon juice until the sauce is pleasantly acidic.

  3. If desired, mix in powdered ginger for extra flavor.

  4. Adjust the proportions of oil and vinegar to taste.

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. Pepper + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,800 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Onion + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,595 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Shrimps
Provide the main body and savory flavor of the sauce once pounded into a paste.
Salad oil
Adds fat and smoothness, carrying flavor and helping bind the pounded shrimp into a sauce.
Green chilies
Supply heat and fresh, pungent flavor that defines the sauce.
Vinegar or lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the richness of the oil and shrimp.

The step that matters

Pounding the shrimp into a smooth paste. If the shrimp is not worked to a fine, smooth paste, the sauce will be coarse and the oil will not emulsify evenly into it. Mincing quickly with a sharp knife keeps the shrimp from becoming mushy or watery before pounding.

Swap the ginger

The recipe marks ginger as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shrimp, pepper, onion, vinegar):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shrimp, pepper, onion, vinegar. 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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