Skip to main content
Main

Lobster a LA Newburg

A creamy lobster dish made with eggs, butter, flour, milk, cream, and sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By United Methodist Church (Grayville, Ill.) · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Mustard and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,430 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Lobster a LA Newburg

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Mash the yolks of six hard boiled eggs with one teaspoon salt, one-fourth teaspoon dry mustard, a pinch of red pepper, one tablespoon butter, one tablespoon flour, one cup milk with one-half cup cream.

  2. Put in a double boiler and cook until thick.

Add lobster and serve

  1. Add lobster and chopped whites of eggs.

  2. Let this cook until good.

  3. Pour in one-half glass of sherry wine just before serving.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

724Calories
28 gProtein
15 gFat
111 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Chili1 tsp (2.7g)8
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Mustard1 tsp (5g) yellow3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By United Methodist Church (Grayville, Ill.). 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. See the original page.

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. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Mustard + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,479 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  4. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Egg yolks
Mashed into the sauce, they enrich it and add a rich, savory flavor.
Flour
Thickens the milk and cream into a smooth, stable sauce.
Milk and cream
Form the liquid base of the sauce, giving it body and richness.
Butter (in the method)
Adds fat and richness to the sauce.
Sherry wine
Adds aroma and a subtle sweetness and acidity to the finished sauce.

The step that matters

Cook the sauce until thick in the double boiler. Gentle indirect heat keeps the flour-thickened milk and egg sauce smooth. Too much heat can scorch it or curdle the eggs, so it should thicken slowly.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, milk, pepper, egg, sherry, wine):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk, pepper, egg, sherry, 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes