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Deviled Lobster

Deviled Lobster is a dish of boiled lobster meat mixed with mustard, cayenne, salt, table sauce, vinegar, butter, and coral.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Lobster and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,095 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Deviled Lobster

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the meat from the boiled lobster and reserve the coral.

  2. Season the lobster meat with mustard, cayenne, salt, and table sauce.

  3. Prepare the dressing before heating the meat.

Make the dressing

  1. Rub the coral smooth.

  2. Add vinegar to the coral until it is thin enough to pour easily.

  3. Stir the coral into the saucepan.

  4. Allow the dressing to boil once before adding the coral.

  5. Stir in the butter.

Stew and finish

  1. Stew the mixture until well combined in a covered saucepan with enough hot water to prevent burning.

  2. When it boils again, remove from heat immediately to avoid toughening the meat.

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  4. Mustard + saucetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,120 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Meat + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together855 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster meat
Provides the main body and sweet flavour of the dish, and is cooked gently so it stays tender.
Coral
Adds richness and a deep colour to the dressing, thickening it as it is cooked.
Mustard
Adds sharp, tangy flavour that cuts through the richness of the lobster and coral.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and thins the coral to a pourable consistency.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, rich mouthfeel in the finished dressing.

The step that matters

Remove from heat once it boils again. Lobster protein toughens quickly when overheated, so the dish must come off the heat as soon as it boils again to keep the meat tender.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, meat, pepper, sauce, vinegar, butter):

  1. Mustardthe original
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Shallotfits less well
  4. Onionfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, meat, pepper, sauce, vinegar, butter. 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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