Skip to main content
Main

Gratin of Lobster

A baked lobster gratin with parsley, anchovy essence, vinegar, cayenne, béchamel, egg yolk, breadcrumbs, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Gratin of Lobster

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the filling

  1. Chop the lobster meat very fine and mix with parsley, anchovy essence, vinegar, cayenne pepper, salt, and béchamel sauce.

  2. Boil the mixture together, then add the egg yolk and let it cool.

Bake and serve

  1. Fill paper cases with the mixture, cover with bread crumbs and small pieces of butter.

  2. Brown in a 400°F (200°C) oven and serve on a napkin.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Anchovy + eggtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,330 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 meat
Provides the main flesh and flavour of the filling.
Béchamel sauce
Binds the chopped lobster into a moist, spreadable filling.
Egg yolk
Adds richness and helps the filling thicken and set as it cools.
Bread crumbs
Forms a crisp, golden topping when baked.
Butter
Adds fat that helps the topping brown and gives richness.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture together before adding the egg yolk. Egg yolk thickens when heated but can scramble if it is added to a very hot mixture. Letting the mixture cool before baking helps keep the filling smooth and creamy.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, lobster, anchovy, vinegar, pepper, sauce, egg):

  1. Capersfits about as well
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Garlicfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, lobster, anchovy, vinegar, pepper, sauce, egg. 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

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesLobster SauceLobster Sauce174 recipesLobster CroquettesLobster Croquettes99 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipes