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Cold Dressed Lobster and Crab

Cold lobster or crab meat served in the shell and dressed with a sauce such as remoulade or mayonnaise.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Acton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Crab and lobster work together. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 196 recipes. Both carry octanal, which smells fat, soap. The science ↓

Cold Dressed Lobster and Crab

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster

  1. Before a lobster is sent to table, take off the large claws.

  2. Hold each claw firmly with the edge upwards.

  3. Crack the shell with a quick light blow from a cutlet bat or other convenient object, without disfiguring the fish.

  4. Split the tail open with a very sharp knife.

  5. Dish the lobster as shown in the engraving, with or without a napkin under it.

  6. When the soft part of the body is required for the dressing, take it out before serving.

Make the filling

  1. Take the flesh from the claws and tails of two moderate-sized lobsters and cut it into small scallops or dice.

  2. Heat the lobster slowly quite through in about three quarters of a pint of good white sauce or béchamel.

  3. Stir a little lemon juice briskly into the lobster just as it is taken from the fire.

  4. Serve when the lobster is at the point of boiling.

  5. Add the pounded coral, mixed gradually with a few spoonsful of the sauce, before serving.

  6. Finish the flavouring with a small quantity of salt, mace, and cayenne.

Dress and serve

  1. Add the soft part to the remoulade or other sauce it is to be mingled with.

  2. Empty the crab shell entirely and clean it nicely.

  3. Fill the sides of the shell with the white crab flesh divided into small flakes.

  4. Fill the centre of the shell with the soft part or cream.

  5. The sauce can be mixed with the crab flesh the instant before it is sent to table.

  6. The centre may be filled with a red Imperial Mayonnaise when a good effect is wanted.

  7. For a second course, use only enough sauce to adhere to the fish, then lay it evenly into the split shells.

  8. Cover thickly with fine pale fried or unfried bread crumbs, moistened with clarified butter if unfried, and brown with a salamander.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

195Calories
40 gProtein
2 gFat
1 gCarbs

Counts 2 of 3 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 2 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Lobster100g cooked98
Crab100g cooked97
Saucenot 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 Eliza Acton. 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. Crab + lobstertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together196 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  2. Sauce + lobstertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sauce + crabtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together238 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobsters
The flesh forms the main body of the dish, and cooking it gently keeps it tender.
White sauce
Binds the cut lobster into a creamy filling that clings to the flesh.
Lemon juice (in the method)
Adds acidity that brightens the rich sauce and lobster flavour.
Bread crumbs (in the method)
Form a crisp top that browns when finished under heat.

The step that matters

Heat the lobster slowly and serve at the point of boiling. Gentle heating cooks the lobster through without toughening its protein, and adding lemon juice off the heat keeps the sauce smooth and its flavour bright.

“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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