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Sauce for Lobster

A sauce made with egg yolks, oil, vinegar, parsley, and shallots for lobster.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Sauce for Lobster

Ingredients

Directions

Make the emulsion

  1. In a basin, combine the fresh egg yolks and the sieved hard-boiled egg yolk.

  2. Add the salt and white pepper, then stir with a wooden spoon.

  3. Gradually add the salad oil while stirring continuously until thickened.

  4. Slowly incorporate the vinegar while continuing to stir, then add more oil until you use 3 cups of oil and a corresponding amount of vinegar.

Finish and serve

  1. Adjust seasoning if needed, then mix in the chopped parsley and shallots.

  2. Pour the sauce over the lobster 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. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Vinegar + shallottop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. White pepper + parsleytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  4. Vinegar + parsleytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,477 recipes

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

  5. White pepper + vinegartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Fresh egg yolks
Emulsifier that binds the oil and vinegar into a thick, smooth sauce.
Hard-boiled egg yolk
Adds body and a rich, creamy texture to the emulsion.
Salad oil
Forms the bulk of the sauce, giving richness and a glossy, thick texture.
Common vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the richness of the oil.

The step that matters

Adding the oil gradually while stirring. Oil must be added slowly so it disperses into tiny droplets held by the egg yolk lecithin. Adding it too fast can break the emulsion, leaving a greasy, separated sauce.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, vinegar, parsley, shallot):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, vinegar, parsley, shallot. 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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