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Lobster and Crab Farcee

A savory lobster and crab filling made with butter, onion, flour, milk, and seasonings, baked in shells.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Lobster and Crab Farcee

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Carefully remove the shell from the boiled lobster or crabs.

  2. In a pan, sauté the chopped onion in butter until partially fried.

  3. Add the flour and stir to combine.

  4. Chop the lobster finely and add it to the pan, stirring until partially fried.

  5. Pour in the milk or cream and stir frequently to prevent burning.

  6. Season with salt and pepper.

Bake and serve

  1. Fill the lobster or crab shells with the mixture and bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until heated through.

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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster or crabs
Provides the main meat and flavour of the filling.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the onion soften and brown lightly.
Flour
Thickens the milk or cream into a binding sauce that holds the filling together.
Milk or cream
Adds moisture and creaminess, forming the body of the sauce.

The step that matters

Stirring after adding the milk or cream. Milk and cream contain sugars and proteins that scorch on the bottom of a pan. Frequent stirring keeps heat even, prevents burning, and lets the flour-thickened sauce become smooth and cohesive.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, butter, flour, milk, 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.

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