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Shrimp Sauce

A creamy butter sauce for fresh shrimp, made by simmering shrimp in a broth of shrimp heads, butter, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Shrimp Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the shrimp stock

  1. Remove the heads and skins from the shrimps.

  2. Stew the heads and skins in boiling water for 1 hour to extract flavor.

  3. Strain the liquid.

Cook the shrimp

  1. Use the liquid to melt the butter in a pan.

  2. Add the shelled shrimps to the butter and liquid.

  3. Simmer gently for about 20 minutes until cooked through.

  4. Season with coarse sea salt.

  5. Stir in the cream.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  3. Shrimp + creamtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Shrimp
Provides the main protein and sweet, briny flavor of the dish.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavor and gives the sauce a smooth body.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, thickening the sauce slightly and softening its flavor.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for about 20 minutes until cooked through. Shrimp turn rubbery when overcooked, and high heat toughens the proteins quickly. A gentle simmer cooks them evenly while keeping them tender and juicy.

“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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