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Shrimp Salad

A salad of shrimp dressed with a creamy yolk-based dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Shrimp Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, mix the hard boiled and raw egg yolks until smooth.

  2. Slowly beat in the oil, alternating every third tablespoon with vinegar and lemon juice.

  3. Once the mixture is light, add salt and cayenne pepper to taste.

Assemble and serve

  1. Do not add the dressing to the shrimp until ready to serve.

  2. In winter, mix in chopped celery equal to the amount of shrimp.

  3. In summer, place shrimp in the center of a dish, pour dressing over, and garnish with lettuce.

  4. Chill the dressing in the ice 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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Lemon + celerytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Celery + lettucetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,033 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Pepper + lettucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,037 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Their lecithin helps the oil and vinegar blend into a smooth, thick emulsion.
Oil
Provides fat that gives the dressing a rich, silky body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and balances the richness of the oil.
Lemon juice
Adds bright acidity that lifts the flavor of the dressing.
Shrimp
Forms the main body of the salad, supplying its protein and bulk.

The step that matters

Slowly beat in the oil, alternating with vinegar and lemon juice. Oil must be added gradually so the egg yolks can disperse it into tiny droplets. Adding it too fast causes the emulsion to break, leaving a greasy, separated dressing instead of a smooth, thick one.

Swap the celery

The recipe marks celery as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shrimp, egg, pepper, vinegar, lemon, lettuce):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Celerythe original

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