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To Pot Shrimps and Lobsters

A pot of shrimps cooked in butter, seasoned with mace and white pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and white pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,695 recipes. Both carry myrcene, which smells balsamic, herbaceous. The science ↓

To Pot Shrimps and Lobsters

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Warm the shrimps in the butter over low heat, stirring until heated through.

  2. Season with powdered mace and white pepper to taste.

  3. Transfer the shrimps to pots and press some of the butter from them on top.

  4. Once cooled, pour melted butter over the top before sealing.

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 + white peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

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

  3. Butter + macetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,405 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Butter + white peppertop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Shrimp + white peppertop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together202 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

Butter and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,405 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 protein and the savory flavor that defines the dish.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and carries the flavor while the shrimps are warmed and sealed.

The step that matters

Warming the shrimps over low heat. Gentle heat warms the shrimp through without toughening the proteins, which tighten and turn rubbery when cooked too fast or too hot. Stirring helps the butter heat evenly so the shrimp do not scorch.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Gingerfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

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