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Buttered Lobsters

A lobster dish baked in butter, cream, and herbs, served in its shell.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Buttered Lobsters

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the lobster

  1. Boil the lobsters until half cooked.

  2. Remove the shells and cut the bodies in half.

  3. Pick out the meat and leave the shells whole.

  4. Break the tails and claws, then cut the meat into small pieces.

Make the filling

  1. In a saucepan, combine the lobster meat, essence of ham, butter, cream, beaten mace, shallot, parsley, and breadcrumbs.

  2. Mix over low heat for 5 minutes, seasoning with cayenne pepper, salt, and lemon juice.

Bake and serve

  1. Fill the reserved shells with the mixture and sprinkle breadcrumbs on top.

  2. Bake gently at 350°F (175°C) for 20 minutes.

  3. To serve, brown the breadcrumbs with a salamander.

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. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  5. Shallot + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,898 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobsters
Provides the main sweet meat that forms the body of the dish.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour and keeping the filling moist.
Cream
Adds moisture and softness, helping the filling set smoothly when heated.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb liquid and thicken the filling, and brown on top for a crisp finish.
Essence of ham
Adds a savoury, meaty depth that enriches the lobster flavour.

The step that matters

Mix over low heat for 5 minutes. Gentle heat keeps the cream and butter from separating or scorching, and lets the breadcrumbs thicken the filling without toughening the delicate lobster meat.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, ham, butter, cream, shallot, parsley, pepper):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, ham, butter, cream, shallot, parsley, pepper. 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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