Name: Shrimp Sauce
Ingredients: 5 cents worth of shrimps (a large handful); cold water; white sauce; ½ teaspoon anchovy sauce (if shrimps are fresh)

Why it works: Sauce and anchovy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Shrimp Sauce

Ingredients

5 cents worth of shrimps (a large handful)
cold water
white sauce
½ teaspoon anchovy sauce (if shrimps are fresh)

Directions

Prepare the shrimp

Place shrimps in an enamel bowl and cover with cold water.
Boil for 10 minutes.
Drain and pick through the shrimps.

Make the sauce

Add the shrimps to some white sauce and reheat.
If the shrimps are fresh, stir in ½ teaspoon of anchovy sauce.

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.

Sauce + anchovytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,057 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Shrimp + anchovytop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together440 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).
Shrimp + saucetop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,423 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Shrimps: Provide the main flavour and the bulk of the sauce's texture.
White sauce: Carries the shrimp and gives the dish a smooth, creamy body.
Anchovy sauce: Adds a salty, savoury depth that rounds out the shrimp flavour.

“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.