Name: Devilled Shrimps
Ingredients: shrimps; butter; cayenne pepper; croutons or buttered toast

Why it works: Shrimp and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,931 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓

Devilled Shrimps

Ingredients

shrimps
butter
cayenne pepper
croutons or buttered toast

Directions

Shell the shrimps.
Heat the shrimps in butter, then add cayenne pepper to taste.
Serve on croutons or buttered toast.

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.

Shrimp + buttertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,931 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Shrimp + peppertop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,692 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylethanol (rose, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Shrimps: Provide the main protein, cooked gently in butter until heated through.
Butter: Carries the heat and adds richness and a rounded flavour to the shrimp.
Cayenne pepper: Adds heat and a sharp spice that gives the dish its devilled character.

“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.