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Deviled Lobsters

A deviled lobster dish made with butter, vinegar, mustard, curry powder, cayenne pepper, and bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Deviled Lobsters

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the sauce

  1. Mix mustard, salt, curry powder, and cayenne pepper in a cup.

  2. Gradually add vinegar, stirring until smooth.

  3. Melt butter in a saucepan, then add mustard mixture and stir until it boils.

Fill and bake

  1. Add minced lobsters and 2-3 tablespoons of bread crumbs.

  2. Spoon mixture into large clam shells.

  3. Sprinkle with cracker dust or bread crumbs.

  4. Brown in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Vinegar + mustardtop 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. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Mustard + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,484 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobsters
Provides the main protein and the body of the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying the mustard flavour through the filling.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the mustard and balances the richness of the butter.
Ground mustard
Supplies the pungent, sharp flavour that defines the dish.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid to thicken the filling and form a crisp, browned topping.

The step that matters

Bring the sauce to a boil before adding the lobster. Boiling the butter and mustard mixture thickens it and cooks out the raw bite of the mustard. Adding lobster to a thin, unboiled sauce leaves the filling loose and harsher in flavour.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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