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Creole Lobster Pilau

A rice dish with lobster, white sauce, curry powder, and Spanish sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Creole Lobster Pilau

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rice and lobster

  1. Boil the rice in broth until cooked, then shape it in a buttered mold.

  2. Remove the tails from the lobsters and cut them into slices about ½ inch thick.

  3. Sauté the lobster slices in a little butter until heated through.

Assemble and serve

  1. Place the lobster slices on a platter in a double row around the rice mold.

  2. Pour the white sauce, mixed with curry powder, over the lobster and rice.

  3. Top with the Spanish 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. Lobster + saucetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Rice + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,065 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  4. Onion + caperstop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,381 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Tomato + caperstop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together568 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Forms the firm base of the pilau once cooked and shaped in a mold.
Lobsters
Provides the main protein, with tender meat that firms up when heated through.
White sauce
Adds a creamy, moist coating that binds the dish together.
Spanish sauce
Adds tomato and onion flavor and moisture, giving acidity and savoriness on top.

The step that matters

Sauté the lobster slices until heated through. Lobster meat turns rubbery and dry when overcooked, so it should be warmed just until opaque and no longer. Gentle heat in a little butter keeps it tender.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, butter, lobster, sauce, tomato, pepper, capers):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, butter, lobster, sauce, tomato, pepper, capers. 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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