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Lobster a LA Newburg

A creamy lobster sauce made with egg yolks, butter, flour, milk, cream, sherry wine, and lobster.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and lobster are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,050 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Lobster a LA Newburg

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Mash the yolks of the hard boiled eggs with salt, dry mustard, and red pepper.

  2. In a saucepan, melt the butter and stir in the flour to make a roux.

  3. Gradually add the milk and cream, cooking in a double boiler until thick.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in the lobster and chopped egg whites, cooking until heated through.

  2. Pour in the sherry wine just before serving.

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. Cream + lobstertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,050 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Mashed yolks enrich the sauce, adding body, richness and a smooth texture.
Butter
Melted with flour to form a roux, which thickens the sauce and adds richness.
Flour
Forms a roux with butter that thickens the milk and cream into a smooth sauce.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, which thickens as it cooks.
Cream
Adds richness and a silkier texture to the sauce.
Lobster
Provides the main seafood flavour and tender texture in the sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the milk and cream gradually. Adding liquid slowly to the roux lets it blend smoothly without lumps. Cooking gently in a double boiler keeps the sauce from scorching or curdling while it thickens.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, pepper, butter, flour, milk, cream, lobster):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, pepper, butter, flour, milk, cream, lobster. 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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