Name: Shrimp Sauce
Ingredients: 1 pint melted butter sauce; ½ pint shelled shrimps; 1 teaspoon anchovy essence; a pinch of cayenne pepper; juice of ½ lemon; 2-3 drops cochineal (optional for color)

Why it works: Sauce and anchovy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Shrimp Sauce

Ingredients

1 pint melted butter sauce
½ pint shelled shrimps
1 teaspoon anchovy essence
a pinch of cayenne pepper
juice of ½ lemon
2-3 drops cochineal (optional for color)

Directions

In a bowl, combine the melted butter sauce, shelled shrimps, anchovy essence, cayenne pepper, and lemon juice, and mix well until all ingredients are combined.
Just before serving, stir in cochineal to achieve a light pink color.

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.

Sauce + anchovytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,057 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Shrimp + anchovytop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together440 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).
Butter + shrimptop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,931 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,697 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Melted butter sauce: Forms the rich, flowing base that carries the other flavours.
Shelled shrimps: Supply the main flavour and body of the sauce.
Anchovy essence: Adds a savoury depth that rounds out the sauce.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and shrimp.

“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.