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
Cut fresh brown bread into slices, not too new.
Spread butter on each slice.
Sprinkle shelled shrimps on the buttered bread.
Roll up each slice, ensuring they are all the same size.
Arrange the rolls on a bed of mustard and cress.
Optionally, spread anchovy paste on the bread before adding shrimps, and sprinkle with chopped watercress.
Alternatively, use a layer of caviar instead of watercress.
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.
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Mustard + watercresstop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together293 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + caviartop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together107 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Shrimp + anchovytop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together440 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).
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Bread + anchovytop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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):
- Chivefits better
- Shallotfits better
- Potatofits better
- 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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