Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 27,047 recipes mention both. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Lobster Sauce a LA Creme
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the lobster
Cut the lobster into slices about the size of half-crown pieces and place in a stewpan.
Pound the soft and white parts of the lobster with the butter and rub through a sieve.
Make the sauce
Pour the boiling water into the stewpan and simmer for 10 minutes.
In another pan, rub the flour into the butter, then add the lobster liquor and stir until boiling.
Season with cayenne and add the anchovy butter and lemon juice just before serving.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Lobster + anchovytop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together470 recipes
Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
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Walnut + lemontop 10% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together2,149 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + walnuttop 12% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together5,873 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour share little aroma chemistry, yet 124,287 recipes mention both: they likely 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 flavour and the sweet meat that gives the sauce its body.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour and giving a smooth mouthfeel.
- Flour
- Thickens the liquor into a sauce by gelatinising with heat and liquid.
- Anchovy butter
- Adds savoury depth and salty umami that rounds out the sauce.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the rich sauce and balances its fat.
The step that matters
Rubbing the flour into the butter. Blending flour into butter before adding liquid coats the starch granules so they disperse evenly. Adding liquid to dry flour without this step causes lumps that are hard to smooth out.
Flavor stand-ins for the walnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, butter, flour, pepper, anchovy, lemon):
- Walnutthe original
- Almondabout as good a flavor fit
- Pistachioabout as good a flavor fit
- Chestnutabout as good a flavor fit
Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, butter, flour, pepper, anchovy, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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