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Lobster and Mushrooms

A creamy lobster and mushroom dish cooked in butter, flour, and milk.

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 Mushrooms

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a pan.

  2. Add the flour and mix until smooth, without browning.

  3. Gradually stir in the milk and cook until it boils.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the chopped mushrooms, salt, pepper, and lobster.

  2. Stir until the lobster is cooked through.

  3. Serve in plates.

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. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Milk + mushroomtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,231 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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
Provides the main protein and sweet, delicate flavor; it cooks quickly and turns firm when heated through.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the base and carries flavor through the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce as its starch swells when heated.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving it body and a creamy texture.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavor and moisture, and soften as they cook in the sauce.

The step that matters

Make the sauce without browning the flour. Cooking the flour in butter until smooth, without browning, lets its starch thicken the milk evenly. Browned flour adds a nutty color and taste that changes the dish, and lumps form if the milk is added too fast or the mixture is not stirred.

“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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