Name: Prawn or Shrimp Pudding
Ingredients: sufficient fish flesh, minced; shells of the fish, dried and pounded; 2 tablespoons fresh butter; equal quantity of cold chicken, veal, or sweetbread, chopped small; 2 raw egg yolks; a few bread crumbs; a little gravy or cream; white pepper to taste; butter for frying

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Prawn or Shrimp Pudding

Ingredients

sufficient fish flesh, minced
shells of the fish, dried and pounded
2 tablespoons fresh butter
equal quantity of cold chicken, veal, or sweetbread, chopped small
2 raw egg yolks
a few bread crumbs
a little gravy or cream
white pepper to taste
butter for frying

Directions

Prepare the filling

Mince the fish flesh and set aside.
Dry and pound the fish shells in a mortar with the butter.
Combine the pounded shells with the minced fish, chopped chicken, veal, or sweetbread.
Mix in the egg yolks, bread crumbs, gravy or cream, and white pepper.

Stuff and cook

Stuff the mixture into casings and prick them with a needle.
Fry the stuffed casings in butter when ready to serve.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,668 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,488 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Fish + chickentop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together190 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks: Bind the mixture and help it set firm when cooked.
Bread crumbs: Absorb moisture and give the filling body.
Fish flesh: Forms the main body of the pudding and gives its flavour.
Chicken, veal, or sweetbread: Adds richness and a meatier texture to the filling.

The step that matters

Pricking the casings before frying. Pricking lets steam escape as the filling heats, so the casings do not swell and burst in the fat.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, butter, chicken, egg, bread, cream):

Nutmegfits better
Capersfits better
Tarragonfits better
White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, butter, chicken, egg, bread, 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.