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Shrimp Canape

Shrimp canape is a bread square topped with shrimp, egg, butter, and watercress.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 Canape

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Cut the bread into 2½‑inch squares.

  2. Dip the bread into the beaten eggs, coating both sides.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place the bread on a dish and top with the shelled shrimps.

  2. Pour the remaining egg over the shrimps and add small pieces of butter on top.

  3. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 5 to 10 minutes until hot.

Serve

  1. Garnish with watercress before serving.

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

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

  2. Shrimp + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,931 recipes

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

  3. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Bread + watercresstop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together307 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 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

Bread
Forms the base that holds the toppings and soaks up the egg while baking.
Eggs
Bind the topping and set on heat, giving the canapé a soft, custardy layer.
Shrimps
Provide the main protein and savoury flavour of the canapé.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture and helps the top brown lightly in the oven.

The step that matters

Bake until just hot. Eggs turn firm and rubbery when overcooked, and shrimp toughens with long heat. Baking only 5 to 10 minutes until hot keeps the egg tender and the shrimp juicy.

“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.

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