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Lobster Ramekins

Lobster cooked with butter, tomato, stock, mushrooms, sherry, and seasonings, served in ramekins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Mushroom and sherry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,176 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Lobster Ramekins

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Melt butter over medium heat in a saucepan.

  2. Add lobster, strained tomato, stock, and mushrooms.

  3. Cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

  4. Season with salt and cayenne pepper.

  5. Stir in the sherry and mix well.

Serve

  1. Serve in ramekins or paper cases.

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. Mushroom + sherrytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,176 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

  2. Tomato + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,719 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster
Provides the main protein and sweet, delicate flavor that forms the body of the dish.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavor while the mixture cooks.
Strained tomato
Adds acidity and color, and gives the filling a smooth, saucy body.
Mushrooms
Add earthy savoriness and a tender texture as they release and absorb liquid.
Sherry
Adds aromatic acidity and depth that rounds out the sauce.

The step that matters

Stirring in the sherry. Sherry is added at the end so its volatile aromas are not lost to long cooking. Mixing it in well keeps the flavor even throughout the filling.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, butter, mushroom, pepper, sherry):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Spinachfits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, butter, mushroom, pepper, sherry. 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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