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To Stew Lobsters or Shrimps

A stew of lobsters or shrimps simmered with water, mace, peppercorns, flour, butter, and wine or vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and white wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,083 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

To Stew Lobsters or Shrimps

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pick your lobsters or shrimps into large pieces.

  2. Boil the shells in water with mace and peppercorns until flavorful.

Make the stew

  1. Strain the mixture and add the lobsters or shrimps.

  2. Thicken with flour and butter, then bring to a boil.

  3. Add white wine or vinegar and serve.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Mace + white winetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,329 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

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

  5. Mace + buttertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,405 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Lobsters or shrimps
Provide the main protein and sweet, delicate seafood flavor to the stew.
Flour
Thickens the broth into a smooth, lightly body-rich sauce when cooked.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the flour thicken the broth smoothly.
White wine or vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens and balances the rich, buttery broth.

The step that matters

Thicken with flour and butter, then bring to a boil. Flour must be cooked with the fat and liquid long enough to swell its starch fully; adding it lumpy or undercooking it leaves a pasty, floury taste and uneven texture.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, flour, butter, white wine. 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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