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Shrimp Rolls

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Mustard and watercress match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 293 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Shrimp Rolls

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cut fresh brown bread into slices, not too new.

  2. Spread butter on each slice.

  3. Sprinkle shelled shrimps on the buttered bread.

  4. Roll up each slice, ensuring they are all the same size.

  5. Arrange the rolls on a bed of mustard and cress.

  6. Optionally, spread anchovy paste on the bread before adding shrimps, and sprinkle with chopped watercress.

  7. Alternatively, use a layer of caviar instead of watercress.

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. Mustard + watercresstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together293 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Butter + caviartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together107 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Shrimp + anchovytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together440 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

  5. Bread + anchovytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,260 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

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

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, butter, shrimp, anchovy, watercress, caviar):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, shrimp, anchovy, watercress, caviar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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