Name: Shrimp with Mayonnaise
Ingredients: 1 pint picked shrimps; 2 tablespoons mayonnaise sauce; a few grains cayenne pepper; 1 pint aspic jelly; a good bunch watercress; a little lobster coral; minced parsley; thin rounds of bread and butter (about 3 inches long and 1½ inches wide)

Why it works: Watercress and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 469 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Shrimp with Mayonnaise

Ingredients

1 pint picked shrimps
2 tablespoons mayonnaise sauce
a few grains cayenne pepper
1 pint aspic jelly
a good bunch watercress
a little lobster coral
minced parsley
thin rounds of bread and butter (about 3 inches long and 1½ inches wide)

Directions

Prepare the shrimp

In a basin, combine the shrimps, mayonnaise sauce, 1 tablespoon of liquid aspic, and cayenne pepper; mix well.

Assemble and serve

Pile the shrimp mixture in the center of each round of bread and butter.
Sprinkle alternately with lobster coral and chopped parsley.
Arrange chopped aspic around the edge of a dish, then place the pieces of bread with shrimp on top.
Fill the center with watercress or any other green, and 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.

Watercress + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together469 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Sauce + lobstertop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,095 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Shrimp + lobstertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together403 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Shrimps: Provide the main filling and the savory flavor of the dish.
Mayonnaise sauce: Adds richness and moisture, binding the shrimp into a spreadable filling.
Aspic jelly: Sets into a clear jelly that holds the garnish and adds moisture and gloss.
Bread and butter: Forms the base that holds the shrimp filling and adds buttery richness.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shrimp, sauce, pepper, watercress, lobster, bread, butter):

Capersfits better
Parsleythe original
Tarragonfits about as well
Garlicfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against shrimp, sauce, pepper, watercress, lobster, bread, butter. 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.