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Potted Lobster

Potted Lobster is a lobster dish cooked with butter, bay leaves, nutmeg, mace, white pepper, and salt, then chilled and served.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Isabella Beeton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Potted Lobster

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and bake

  1. Take out the meat carefully from the shell, but do not cut it up.

  2. Put some butter at the bottom of a dish, lay in the lobster as evenly as possible, with the bay-leaves and seasoning between.

  3. Cover with butter, and bake for 3/4 hour in a gentle oven.

Pot and preserve

  1. When done, drain the whole on a sieve, and lay the pieces in potting-jars, with the seasoning about them.

  2. When cold, pour over it clarified butter, and, if very highly seasoned, it will keep some time.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

116Calories
21 gProtein
2 gFat
4 gCarbs

Counts 4 of 5 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Lobster100g cooked98
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Macenot in our table0

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

By Isabella Beeton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Mace + white peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  3. Nutmeg + white peppertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Lobster + nutmegtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together458 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  5. Lobster + macetop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together596 recipes

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, which sets firm and holds its shape when baked and cooled.
Butter (in the method)
Adds richness and moisture, and forms a sealing layer that helps the potted lobster keep.
Bay-leaves
Add a subtle aromatic flavour to the lobster as it bakes.

The step that matters

Covering with clarified butter when cold. Clarified butter forms a seal that keeps air away from the meat. Pour it only once the lobster is fully cold, so it sets cleanly and the seal holds.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, nutmeg, mace):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, nutmeg, mace. 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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