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To Stew Prawns, Shrimps, or Craw'-fish

A stew of prawns, shrimp, or crawfish simmered in wine, mace, nutmeg, and butter, served over toasted bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

To Stew Prawns, Shrimps, or Craw'-fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the shellfish

  1. Pick out the tails and set them aside.

  2. Bruise the bodies and place them in a saucepan with the white wine and mace.

  3. Stew for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

  4. Strain the mixture.

  5. Wash the saucepan.

Make the sauce

  1. Return the strained liquid and tails to the saucepan.

  2. Add grated nutmeg, salt, and butter, shaking to combine.

Toast and serve

  1. Toast the bread until brown on both sides.

  2. Cut the toasted bread into six pieces.

  3. Arrange the toast in the bottom of a dish.

  4. Pour the fish and sauce over the toast.

  5. Garnish with claws if using crawfish or prawns.

  6. Serve hot.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. White wine + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. White wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Prawns, shrimps, or crawfish tails
Provide the main seafood flavour and tender, meaty texture of the stew.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma while gently cooking the shellfish bodies into the liquid.
Butter
Adds richness and body to the sauce, giving it a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
Bread
Soaks up the sauce, serving as a toasted base that holds the stew.

The step that matters

Adding the butter to the strained liquid. Butter rolled in flour is stirred in while the liquid is hot, and shaking helps the flour and fat blend evenly. Poor mixing can leave lumps or greasy patches instead of a smooth, thickened sauce.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shrimp, white wine, nutmeg, butter, flour, bread, vinegar):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shrimp, white wine, nutmeg, butter, flour, bread, 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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