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Aspic of Shbinps or Prawns

A chilled aspic made with shrimp, jelly, and a green salad garnish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Lettuce and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,356 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Aspic of Shbinps or Prawns

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the shrimp

  1. Pick a quart of shrimps, reserving the largest for this dish and setting aside broken pieces for fish sauce.

  2. Toss the shrimps in enough oil and vinegar to make them shine.

Make the salad and jelly

  1. Chop some amber-colored jelly and prepare finely sliced or chopped green lettuce, cress, mustard, or celery, seasoning with oil, vinegar, and coarse sea salt.

  2. Place a spoonful of the green salad in each small dish to form a border.

  3. In the center of each dish, add a spoonful of chopped jelly and top with a spoonful of shrimps.

  4. Dredge more chopped jelly over the dish using a silver fork.

  5. Melt some jelly and mix in pepper sauce, Halfird sauce, and a drop of red coloring.

  6. Arrange the shrimps closely on a large meat platter and pour enough jelly over to hold them together, then refrigerate until set.

Serve

  1. When ready to serve, cut the jelly with shrimps into cakes of desired shapes and serve with a green salad border.

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. Lettuce + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,356 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Lettuce + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,033 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

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

  5. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 flavor, held together in the set jelly.
Amber-colored jelly
Sets to bind the shrimps and gives the dish its structure when chilled.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the shrimp and seasons the dressing.
Oil
Adds fat and sheen, coating the shrimp and greens.
Green lettuce
Provides a crisp, fresh green salad border with a light texture.

The step that matters

Arranging the shrimps and pouring the jelly. Jelly must be poured while still liquid and chilled only until set, so the shrimps are held evenly without floating or separating. Gelatin sets as it cools, so pouring over a cold surface or letting it set too early can leave gaps.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shrimp, vinegar, lettuce, mustard, pepper, sauce):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Dillfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shrimp, vinegar, lettuce, mustard, pepper, sauce. 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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