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Dunbar Shrimps

A creamy shrimp dish with eggs, cream, and Worcestershire sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Dunbar Shrimps

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a pan, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add salt, cayenne, Worcestershire sauce, and cream; stir until hot.

  3. Add the shredded shrimps and finely chopped eggs; mix well.

  4. Bring to a boil and serve on hot chips.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  4. Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Shrimp + saucetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,423 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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
Forms the main body and bulk of the dish, giving it a tender, flaky bite.
Eggs
Chopped hard-boiled eggs add richness and a soft, creamy texture to the mixture.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, helping the mixture stay smooth and saucy.
Butter
Provides fat for flavour and helps the pan mixture cook smoothly.
Worcestershire sauce
Adds savoury, slightly tangy depth that rounds out the creamy base.

The step that matters

Heating the cream without scorching. Cream can scorch or separate when heated too hard or left unattended over direct heat. Keeping the heat at medium and stirring steadily keeps the sauce smooth and prevents sticking to the pan.

“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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