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Shrimps in a Gratin

A baked shrimp gratin with béchamel sauce, lobster spawn, lemon juice, and bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sauce and lobster are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,095 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Shrimps in a Gratin

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pick 1 to 2 quarts of shrimps, depending on the size of your dish.

  2. Toss the shrimps in béchamel sauce with pounded lobster spawn.

Heat and season

  1. Heat the mixture until very hot and squeeze in a little lemon juice.

Bake and serve

  1. Transfer the mixture to a baking dish and top with bread crumbs.

  2. Broil until the top is golden brown 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. Sauce + lobstertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Shrimp + lobstertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together403 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Shrimp + breadtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together360 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

  5. Shrimp + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,923 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

Shrimps
Provide the main protein and bulk of the gratin.
Béchamel sauce
Adds creamy moisture that coats the shrimp and keeps the dish from drying out.
Lobster spawn
Adds concentrated seafood flavour to the sauce.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich sauce.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp topping that browns under the broiler.

The step that matters

Broil until the top is golden brown. The broiler browns the crumb topping quickly, so it can scorch before the mixture is heated through. Watch closely and remove it once golden.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shrimp, sauce, lobster, bread):

  1. Coconutfits about as well
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Avocadofits about as well
  4. Grapefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against shrimp, sauce, lobster, bread. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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