Why it works: Lobster and rice work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and 164 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: milk, wheat, shellfish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Roast the lobster
Split lobster lengthwise down the middle and remove center vein. Prepare lobster as on p. 46.
Sprinkle with lemon juice and salt, dot with butter, and roast in a preheated oven at 350°F for 30 minutes.
Brush with butter once or twice.
Remove claws, crack, and take out all meat, including the tail meat. Reserve shells.
Dice meat, mix with liver and/or roe found in lobsters.
Make the stewed rice
Prepare a roux (brown the flour in butter).
Add onion and green pepper, and cook until tender.
Stir in tomatoes and the tomato paste to make a gravy.
While gravy is simmering, boil shrimp in 1/2 cup water with salt and split bay leaf for 15 minutes. Retain stock.
Add stock to gravy, stir in salt and pepper, then lobster meat and shrimp, continue simmering until well cooked.
This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.
Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Lobster + ricetop 12% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together164 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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Tomato + ricetop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together2,990 recipes
Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
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Lobster + shrimptop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together403 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Tomato + oniontop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together20,622 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Shrimp + ricetop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together961 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-methylbutanol (malty, whiskey).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Lobsters
- Provide the main meat and the liver and roe that enrich the stew.
- Flour
- Thickens the butter and gravy into a roux that gives the stew body.
- Tomatoes
- Supply acidity and liquid that form the base of the gravy.
- Tomato paste
- Concentrates tomato flavor and deepens the color of the gravy.
- Butter
- Adds richness and helps brown the flour and lobster.
- Shrimp
- Adds extra seafood flavor and tender bites to the simmered stew.
The step that matters
Simmering the lobster meat in the gravy. Lobster meat turns tough and rubbery if overcooked, so it should be added to the simmering gravy and cooked only until it is heated through and tender.
Flavor stand-ins for the white pepper
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, tomato, lemon, shrimp, butter, flour, onion):
- Garlicbetter flavor fit
- Parsleybetter flavor fit
- Celerybetter flavor fit
- White pepperthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, tomato, lemon, shrimp, butter, flour, onion. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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