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Broiled Lobster

A lobster cooked by broiling, brushed with sweet oil, butter, lemon juice, and Cayenne pepper, served with tomatoes and a baked potato.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Broiled Lobster

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the tail of the lobster in half.

  2. Rub sweet oil over the meat.

Broil and serve

  1. Broil until cooked.

  2. Brush with butter and lemon juice, then sprinkle with Cayenne.

  3. Return the meat to the shell and serve with broiled tomatoes and a baked potato.

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.

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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Lobster + buttertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Lobster + peppertop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,247 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster
The main protein; its meat turns firm and opaque as it cooks.
Sweet oil
Coats the meat to help it brown and keep it from drying out under the broiler.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor and moisture into the lobster.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and lobster flavor.

The step that matters

Broil until cooked. Lobster meat cooks quickly under high heat. Overcooking tightens its proteins and squeezes out moisture, leaving it tough and rubbery, so watch it closely and stop as soon as the meat turns opaque.

“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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