Why it works: Lobster and cream match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,050 recipes mention both. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: milk, wheat, soy, fish, shellfish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Prepare the stock
Clean and parboil oysters.
Drain oysters and add to liquor body bones and tough claw meat from lobster, water, celery, and onion.
Cook slowly until stock is reduced to one cup, and strain.
Make the sauce
Make sauce of butter, flour, strained stock, and cream.
Add oysters and lobster meat cut in strips; then add seasonings.
Add one-half teaspoon beef extract (optional).
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Lobster + creamtop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,050 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + creamtop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together41,494 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Lobster + saucetop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together1,095 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Celery + oniontop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together18,506 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Oyster + buttertop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together8,175 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Oysters
- Provide the main briny flavour and tender texture in the finished sauce.
- Lobster
- Adds sweet, rich seafood flavour and firm meaty pieces to the sauce.
- Butter
- Carries fat and flavour, and enriches the sauce's mouthfeel.
- Flour
- Thickens the stock and cream into a smooth, body-rich sauce.
- Cream
- Adds richness and a silky texture that softens the sauce.
The step that matters
Reduce the stock to one cup. Cooking slowly concentrates the flavour of the shells, bones and vegetables. Boiling too hard can make the stock bitter or cloudy, and the volume must be measured carefully so the sauce is not too thin or too salty.
Flavor stand-ins for the celery
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, lobster, onion, butter, flour, cream, sauce):
- Capersbetter flavor fit
- Garlicabout as good a flavor fit
- Celerythe original
- Nutmegabout as good a flavor fit
Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, lobster, onion, butter, flour, cream, sauce. 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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