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Pickled Lobsters

Pickled Lobsters are lobsters preserved in a vinegar and spice mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Pickled Lobsters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster

  1. Split the lobsters and remove the meat as whole as possible.

  2. Mix mace, cayenne pepper, nutmeg, and salt in a bowl.

  3. Rub the seasoning thoroughly into the lobster meat, ensuring all parts are coated.

  4. Place the seasoned meat in an earthen jar and continue rubbing for 1-2 days.

Pack and seal

  1. Pack the meat into small jars and pour the vinegar mixture over it until covered by 1 inch.

  2. Add enough olive oil to cover the meat by ½ inch.

  3. Seal the jars with a wet bladder and leather for safe keeping.

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. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Cucumber + olivetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  4. Vinegar + cucumbertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,734 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  5. Vinegar + olivetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster
Provides the meat that is seasoned, preserved and eaten.
Salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the meat during curing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavour and helps preserve the meat.
Olive oil
Forms a fat layer over the meat that limits contact with air.
Cayenne pepper
Adds heat and pungency to the seasoning rubbed into the meat.

The step that matters

Rubbing the seasoning into the meat. Salt and spices must coat every part of the lobster evenly, since salt draws out moisture and preserves the meat only where it reaches. Uneven coverage leaves untreated areas that can spoil.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, pepper, nutmeg, vinegar, cucumber, olive):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, pepper, nutmeg, vinegar, cucumber, olive. 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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