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Broiled Lobster

Broiled lobster seasoned with salt, paprika, and olive oil, baked, served with butter and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Olive and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,922 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Broiled Lobster

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut off and crack the claws of the lobster.

  2. Split the lobster in half and clean out the head.

  3. Season the lobster with salt, paprika, and olive oil.

Cook and serve

  1. Broil the lobster cut side up over a brisk fire for 10 minutes.

  2. Remove the lobster and bake for an additional 10 minutes.

  3. Bake the claws for the entire cooking time of the lobster.

  4. Spread with maitre d'hotel butter and serve with lemon quarters.

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. Olive + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,922 recipes

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

  2. Olive + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,887 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Lobster + olivetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together252 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
Forms the main body of the dish, and its flesh cooks to firm, opaque tenderness with heat.
Olive oil
Carries the seasoning and helps the shell and surface brown lightly under heat.
Maitre d'hotel butter
Adds richness and moisture to the cooked meat as it melts over the lobster.

The step that matters

Broil the lobster cut side up over a brisk fire for 10 minutes.. Lobster meat becomes rubbery when overcooked, and it cooks quickly under high heat. Watching the timing keeps the flesh tender and moist, while the claws need the full cooking time to become fully done.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Coconutfits about as well
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Grapefits less well
  4. Vanillafits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, olive, 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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