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Potted Lobster

A lobster dish prepared by boiling, cutting, pounding with butter and spices, then served in pots covered with clarified butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,257 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Potted Lobster

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster

  1. Wash the lobster well in salt water.

  2. Boil the lobster in salt water until fully cooked.

  3. Remove the lobster and let it cool on a cloth.

  4. Cut open the shell and extract the flesh from the tail and claws.

  5. Chop the lobster flesh into small pieces.

Make the paste

  1. Pound the lobster in a mortar, mixing in clarified butter, mace, Cayenne, and table salt to taste. Continue until you have a smooth, stiff paste.

Pot and seal

  1. Fill pots with the mixture and cover with clarified butter.

  2. Tie white paper over the top of the pots.

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 + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Lobster + buttertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  3. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

  4. Butter + macetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,405 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Lobster + macetop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together596 recipes

Mace and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster
Provides the main protein that sets into a firm, sliceable body when pounded.
Clarified butter
Adds richness and moisture, and seals the top of the pots against air.
Mace
Adds a warm, aromatic spice flavour to the lobster.
Cayenne pepper
Adds gentle heat that sharpens the lobster's sweet flavour.

The step that matters

Pounding to a smooth, stiff paste. Pounding breaks the lobster flesh into fine particles so the butter can bind evenly. Stopping too early leaves a grainy texture, while overworking can make it gluey. Thorough blending gives an even spread and a smooth finish.

Swap the mace

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

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

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