Why it works: Shrimp and lettuce work together. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 430 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓
Shrimp Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Pick over the shrimp, but do not wash them.
Lay the shrimp on fresh lettuce leaves.
Pour mayonnaise over the 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.
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Shrimp + lettucetop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together430 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Shrimp
- Provides the main protein and the firm, meaty texture of the salad.
- Mayonnaise
- Adds fat and creaminess, and coats the shrimp with rich, smooth moisture.
The step that matters
Do not wash the shrimp. Rinsing adds surface water that dilutes the mayonnaise and makes the salad watery. Picking them over removes debris without adding moisture.
“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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