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Devilled Lobster

A lobster dish with mustard, cayenne, salt, pungent sauce, vinegar, butter, and hot water, boiled once and served.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Lobster and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,095 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Devilled Lobster

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster

  1. Extract the meat from the boiled lobster and mince it finely; reserve the coral.

  2. Season the lobster meat with mustard, cayenne, coarse sea salt, and pungent sauce. Toss and stir the lobster meat until well mixed.

  3. Place the mixed lobster meat in a covered porcelain saucepan with enough hot water to prevent burning.

Make the coral dressing

  1. Rub the coral smooth, moistening it with vinegar until it is thin enough to pour easily.

  2. Stir the vinegar-coated coral into the saucepan.

  3. Prepare the dressing before heating the lobster meat.

Heat and finish

  1. Heat the lobster meat until it boils once.

  2. Add the coral and vinegar to the saucepan. Stir in the butter.

  3. When the mixture boils again, remove the pan from the heat to avoid toughening the meat.

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. Lobster + saucetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Mustard + saucetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,120 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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, which becomes tender or tough depending on how long it is heated.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the finished mixture.
Coral (in the method)
Thickens and colours the mixture, adding a rich, concentrated lobster flavour.

The step that matters

Remove the pan from the heat after the second boil. Lobster protein tightens and toughens when overheated, so holding it at a boil for long makes the meat rubbery. Pulling the pan off heat as soon as it boils again keeps it tender.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Mustardthe original
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Shallotfits less well
  4. Horseradishfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, pepper, sauce, vinegar, butter. 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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