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Bouchees of Lobster

Bouchees of Lobster are bread cases filled with a lobster and sauce mixture, then fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Lobster and anchovy work together. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 470 recipes. Both carry octanal, which smells fat, soap. The science ↓

Bouchees of Lobster

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cases

  1. Cut stale bread into 3‑inch rounds and hollow out the center of each round to create cases.

  2. Dip the bread cases in milk and let them drain.

  3. Brush each bread case with beaten egg.

  4. Coat each case with broken vermicelli.

Make the lobster sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan and stir in the flour.

  2. Cook for a few minutes without browning.

  3. Add the milk or stock and stir until boiling.

  4. Add lemon juice, nutmeg, salt, and pepper.

  5. Let the sauce cool slightly.

  6. Stir in the beaten egg yolk, chopped lobster, and anchovy essence.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat frying fat deep enough to cover the cases.

  2. Fry the cases until golden brown and drain them on paper.

  3. Fill each case with the lobster mixture and place the lids on top.

  4. Garnish with feelers.

  5. Serve on lace paper, hot or cold.

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 + anchovytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together470 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Bread + anchovytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,260 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

  5. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Stale bread
Forms the crisp case that holds the filling.
Butter
Enriches the sauce and carries flavour through the roux.
Flour
Thickens the milk or stock into a smooth sauce with the butter.
Milk or fish stock
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding moisture and body.
Egg yolk
Enriches and binds the lobster sauce as it sets slightly.
Lobster meat
Provides the main flavour and texture of the filling.

The step that matters

Let the sauce cool slightly before adding the egg yolk. Adding beaten yolk to a very hot sauce can scramble it and make it grainy. Cooling it a little lets the yolk thicken the sauce smoothly.

“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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