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Deviled Lobster

Deviled lobster is a chilled dish of finely chopped lobster mixed with lemon juice, paprika, celery, pickles, salt, and white sauce, served in shells.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,467 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Deviled Lobster

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Chop the lobster very finely.

  2. Season the lobster with lemon juice, paprika, chopped celery, pickles, and salt.

  3. Mix the lobster with half as much white sauce as lobster meat.

Fill and finish

  1. Fill the lobster shells with the mixture, meat side up.

  2. Cover the top with additional white sauce.

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. Lemon + celerytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Lobster + saucetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Celery + saucetop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,360 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Lobster + celerytop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together251 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  5. Lobster + lemontop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,100 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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 filling that the rest of the mixture is built around.
White sauce
Binds the chopped lobster into a moist, spreadable filling and coats the top.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich lobster and white sauce.
Chopped celery
Adds a crisp texture that contrasts with the soft lobster meat.
Pickles
Add sharp, tangy flavor and a little crunch to the filling.

The step that matters

Mix the lobster with the white sauce. Too much white sauce makes the filling loose and wet, while too little leaves it dry and crumbly. Chopping the lobster finely helps it bind evenly so each bite holds together.

“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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