Name: Shrimp Wiggle
Ingredients: 1 can of shrimps; 1 can of peas; ½ cup of cream; ½ cup of sweet milk; 2 tablespoons of butter; pepper to taste; coarse sea salt to taste

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Shrimp Wiggle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Soak the shrimps in cold water for 15 minutes, then drain.
Mix the drained shrimps with the can of peas.

Make the sauce

In a saucepan, combine the cream, sweet milk, butter, pepper, and salt to make a rich white sauce.

Assemble and serve

Pour the sauce over the shrimp and peas mixture.
Serve in ramekin dishes, on toast, or in a baking dish.

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Shrimp + buttertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,931 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Peas + peppertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,331 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Peas + milktop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,309 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

What each ingredient does

Shrimps: Provide the main protein and savory flavor of the dish.
Peas: Add sweetness, color, and a tender bite alongside the shrimp.
Cream: Adds richness and a smooth texture to the sauce.
Butter: Adds fat and flavor, helping the sauce feel rich and smooth.
Sweet milk: Thins the cream and forms the body of the white sauce.

Swap the peas

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

Peanutfits better
Beansfits better
Almondfits better
Peasthe original

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