Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓
Lobster Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the lobster
Pick out all the eggs from the lobsters.
Boil the lobsters in salted water for 20-30 minutes until cooked.
Once cooled, split the tails.
Remove the meat from the tails.
Crack the claws.
Cut the claw meat into bite-sized pieces.
Make the force-meat balls
Bruise part of the coral in a mortar.
Mix the bruised coral with some lobster meat to make force-meat balls.
Season the force-meat balls with mace, nutmeg, and grated lemon peel.
Boil the force-meat balls in veal broth.
Make the soup and finish
Prepare a gallon of veal broth seasoned with mace, nutmeg, and sweet basil.
Bruise the live spawn in a mortar with some veal broth.
Strain the bruised spawn.
Add the strained spawn to the soup with the lobster meat and remaining coral.
Let the soup simmer gently for 10 minutes.
Beat the egg yolks with a little soup.
Add the beaten yolks to the pot and warm gently.
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.
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Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,557 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,318 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Lemon + vealtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,580 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Nutmeg + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together24,744 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Mace + vealtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,761 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Nutmeg and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 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
- Lobsters
- Provide the main meat and flavour of the soup, with the meat cut into pieces.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the soup and thicken it gently when warmed, giving a smoother texture.
- Veal broth
- Forms the liquid base of the soup and cooks the force-meat balls.
- Lobster coral
- Adds rich colour and flavour when bruised into the force-meat balls and soup.
The step that matters
Warm the beaten egg yolks gently. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat; if the soup boils after they are added, the yolks can scramble and curdle, leaving a grainy texture.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, nutmeg, lemon, veal, egg):
- Parsleyfits better
- Tarragonfits better
- Marjoramfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, nutmeg, lemon, veal, egg. 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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