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To Stew Lobsters

A lobster stew made with gravy, butter, flour, wine, vinegar, anchovy, sauces, lemon, spices, and garnished with lemon and bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

To Stew Lobsters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster

  1. Remove the lobster meat from head, body, tail, and claws, and break it into small pieces.

  2. Combine the lobster meat with the gravy in a saucepan.

Make the sauce

  1. Mix the butter and flour to thicken the sauce, then add it to the lobster mixture.

  2. Stir in the white wine, vinegar, anchovy, Cornubian sauce, soy sauce, and lemon juice.

  3. Season with cayenne, black pepper, salt, nutmeg, and mace.

Heat and serve

  1. Warm the mixture gently over low heat until it begins to simmer.

  2. Serve in a silver dish, garnished with sliced lemon and bread sippets.

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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Lobster + anchovytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together470 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Fish + anchovytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together637 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster
Forms the main body of the dish, providing the meat that the sauce coats.
Butter and flour
Flour thickens the sauce and butter adds richness and a smooth texture.
Fish or meat gravy
Supplies the liquid base and savoury depth for the stew.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the rich sauce.
Anchovy
Adds a salty, savoury depth that enriches the sauce.

The step that matters

Warm the mixture gently over low heat until it begins to simmer.. High heat can toughen lobster meat and cause the flour-thickened sauce to scorch or turn lumpy. Gentle heat keeps the lobster tender and the sauce smooth.

“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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