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Lobster a LA Newburg

A lobster dish simmered in a cream and butter sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Lobster and cream 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

Prepare the lobster

  1. Cut the lobster meat into pieces the size of a hickory nut.

Make the sauce

  1. In a pan, melt the butter and add the lobster pieces.

  2. Season with salt and pepper.

  3. In a bowl, mix the heavy cream with the beaten egg yolk.

  4. Add the cream mixture to the pan and stir until heated through.

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 + creamtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,050 recipes

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

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

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

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

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 flavor at the center of the dish.
Heavy cream
Adds moisture and a rich, smooth texture to the sauce.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor through the lobster pieces.
Egg yolk
Thickens the cream gently with heat, giving the sauce body and a silky texture.

The step that matters

Add the cream mixture to the pan and stir until heated through. Egg yolk thickens when heated, but if the mixture gets too hot it can curdle or scramble. Keep the heat gentle and stir constantly so the sauce turns smooth rather than grainy.

“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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