Skip to main content
Main

Potted Lobster

A lobster dish preserved in clarified butter with seasoning.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Nutmeg and mace 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 ↓

Potted Lobster

Oven, in the book's wordsA gentle oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a gentle oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the lobster

  1. Carefully remove the meat from the lobster shells without cutting it up.

  2. Pat some butter at the bottom of a dish and lay the lobster meat evenly in it.

  3. Add bay leaves and seasoning between the layers of lobster.

Bake

  1. Cover the lobster with more butter and bake in a gentle oven at 300°F (150°C) for 30 minutes.

Pot and seal

  1. Drain the lobster on a sieve and place the pieces in potting jars with the seasoning.

  2. Once cooled, pour clarified butter over the lobster.

  3. If highly seasoned, it will keep for some time.

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. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Mace + white peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  3. Nutmeg + white peppertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Nutmeg + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

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, set firm in butter as it bakes and cools.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and a layer that seals the lobster from air.
Bay leaves
Adds a subtle herbal aroma to the lobster and butter.
Nutmeg and mace
Add warm, aromatic spice notes that complement the lobster.

The step that matters

Bake in a gentle oven. High heat toughens lobster protein and can brown or separate the butter. A low oven cooks the meat gently, keeping it tender and moist.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, nutmeg, mace, butter. 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.

You might also like

Lobster SauceLobster Sauce174 recipesLobster CroquettesLobster Croquettes99 recipesLobster BallsLobster Balls7 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipes