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 ↓
Shrimp Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the shrimp
Remove bits of sea-grass and broken shells from the shrimp.
Boil the shrimp in salted boiling water until the shells turn red, then drain.
Remove the heads, legs, and shells, keeping only the flesh of the tails.
Make the sauce
In a saucepan, melt the butter and flour together until smoothly blended.
Gradually stir in the boiling water, then season with salt and cayenne.
Add the prepared shrimp to the sauce and serve with boiled fish, garnished with whole shrimp.
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 pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,931 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
-
Shrimp + peppertop 24% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,692 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylethanol (rose, floral).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Shrimp
- Provides the main flavour and the tender flesh that forms the body of the sauce.
- Butter
- Carries flavour and gives the sauce a rich, smooth mouthfeel.
- Flour
- Thickens the sauce when cooked with the butter and stirred into the liquid.
The step that matters
Blending the butter and flour. Cooking the butter and flour together into a roux, and adding the boiling water gradually, keeps the sauce smooth. Adding liquid all at once can leave lumps of raw starch that do not dissolve evenly.
“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.
You might also like
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipes
Yorkshire Pudding264 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.