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Creamed Shrimps

Shrimp and diced celery in a milk and flour sauce, served on buttered toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Creamed Shrimps

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the celery into cubes.

  2. Cook the celery in 1½ cups of water until tender.

  3. Drain the shrimps and rinse them with cold water.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter.

  2. Stir in the flour to make a roux.

  3. Gradually add the milk and the water from the cooked celery, stirring until smooth.

  4. Season with salt and pepper.

Combine and serve

  1. Add the cooked celery and shrimps.

  2. Serve the mixture on buttered toast.

  3. Garnish with celery hearts.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Butter
Enriches the sauce and adds richness to the creamed mixture.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce when cooked with butter as a roux.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the cream sauce, giving it body and smoothness.
Shrimps
Provide the main protein and flavour of the dish.
Celery
Adds tender texture and mild flavour to the creamed mixture.

The step that matters

Stir in the milk gradually. Adding liquid slowly to the hot roux while stirring keeps flour dispersed, preventing lumps and producing a smooth, evenly thickened sauce.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, shrimp, butter, flour, pepper):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, shrimp, butter, flour, pepper. 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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