Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Lobster Sauce for Turbot, Salmon, Etc
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the lobster and coral
Boil the lobster, then remove the meat from the shell and cut it into small square pieces.
Put the spawn from under the tail into a mortar with the butter and pound it until smooth.
Rub the mixture through a sieve and cover until needed.
Make the sauce
To make the drawn butter, stir 4 tablespoons of flour mixed with a little cold water into 1 pint of boiling water.
Let it boil and thicken, then remove from heat and stir in 4 ounces of butter and salt to taste.
Add all ingredients except the lobster to the butter mixture and mix well.
Gently fold in the lobster pieces without stirring to avoid breaking them.
Do not boil, as this will destroy the bright red color.
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.
-
Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,057 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Lobster + anchovytop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together470 recipes
Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
-
Lobster + saucetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,095 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Lobster + creamtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,050 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
-
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Lobster
- Provides the main meaty texture and sweet flavour of the sauce.
- Flour (in the method)
- Thickens the boiling water into the drawn butter base.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the sauce.
- Cream
- Softens the sauce and adds body and smoothness.
- Anchovy sauce
- Adds savoury depth and salty umami to the sauce.
The step that matters
Keep the sauce from boiling once the lobster is added. Boiling destroys the bright red colour of the lobster and can toughen or break the delicate meat, so the sauce should be kept hot but not boiling.
Swap the mace
The recipe marks mace as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, butter, anchovy, sauce, cream, pepper):
- Capersfits better
- Tarragonfits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, butter, anchovy, sauce, cream, 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.
More lobster sauce recipes
You might also like
Lobster Croquettes99 recipes
Lobster Balls7 recipes
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.