Name: Shrimp Sandwiches
Ingredients: 2 slices of bread; butter; potted shrimps or shrimp butter

Why it works: Bread and butter 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 ↓

Shrimp Sandwiches

Ingredients

2 slices of bread
butter
potted shrimps or shrimp butter

Directions

Butter the bread slices.
Spread potted shrimps or shrimp butter on one slice.
Press the slices together.
Cut the sandwich into neat pieces.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + shrimptop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,931 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Bread + shrimptop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together360 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread: Provides the structure that holds the filling together and gives the sandwich its body.
Butter: Adds fat and richness and creates a moist layer between the bread and the filling.
Potted shrimps or shrimp butter: Supplies the main flavour and a rich, savoury filling.

“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.