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Salad

Shrimp and Tomato Salad

A salad of tomato, lettuce, shrimp, and a creamy egg-based dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Lettuce and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,356 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Shrimp and Tomato Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Assemble the plates

  1. Place quartered tomato on lettuce leaves on each plate.

  2. Surround the tomato with shrimp.

Make the dressing

  1. In an ice-cold bowl, mix the yolk of the hard boiled egg and the raw egg until smooth.

  2. Gradually add the oil, a few drops at a time, stirring with a wooden spoon.

  3. When half the oil is used, add the salt and then use the remaining oil.

  4. If the dressing becomes too thick, thin it with vinegar or lemon.

  5. Stir in the English mustard 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. Lettuce + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,356 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Tomato + lettucetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Tomato + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,482 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Lettuce + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg yolks emulsify with the oil to form a thick, stable dressing.
Oil
Forms the fat phase of the emulsion, giving the dressing its richness and body.
Shrimp
Provides the main protein and savoury flavour of the salad.
Tomato
Adds fresh acidity and juiciness that balances the rich dressing.

The step that matters

Adding the oil gradually. Oil must be added a few drops at a time while stirring so the yolks can emulsify it. Adding it too fast breaks the emulsion, leaving a greasy, separated dressing that cannot be rescued by thinning alone.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lettuce, shrimp, egg, mustard, vinegar):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Cucumberfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lettuce, shrimp, egg, mustard, vinegar. 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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