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Dainty Shrimp Sandwiches

A sandwich with shrimp, olives, hard‑cooked eggs, mayonnaise, and fresh garnish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and celery 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 ↓

Dainty Shrimp Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Wash the shrimps in cold water and place them in a bowl with the hard-cooked eggs.

  2. Mash the shrimps and eggs together with a fork until well mixed.

  3. Seed and finely chop the olives, then add them to the mixture along with salt and pepper.

Assemble the sandwiches

  1. Cut thin slices of bread from a large loaf.

  2. Use a round can to cut out the center of each slice.

  3. Butter the slices very sparingly.

  4. Spread a thick layer of the shrimp mixture on one slice.

  5. Press another slice down on top to form a sandwich.

  6. Ensure the sandwich looks neat.

Serve

  1. Place the sandwiches on individual plates.

  2. Surround them with crisp, fresh watercress.

  3. Garnish each sandwich with two tiny tender shoots of celery and two narrow strips of pimento on top.

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

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

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Watercress + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together167 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Olive + watercresstop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together684 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Olive + breadtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,091 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Shrimps
Provide the main savory filling and a tender, flavorful body to the spread.
Hard cooked eggs
Bind the shrimp into a soft, spreadable filling with a creamy texture.
Mayonnaise dressing
Adds moisture and richness so the filling spreads smoothly.
Ripe olives
Contribute salty, slightly fruity flavor and a little fat to the filling.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shrimp, olive, egg, pepper, bread, butter, watercress):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shrimp, olive, egg, pepper, bread, butter, watercress. 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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