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Potted Lobster

A lobster dish simmered with spices, lemon, ham essence, anchovy liquor, and butter, then pounded and set in small pots.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Potted Lobster

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster

  1. Boil the lobsters in a pot of salted water until half cooked.

  2. Remove the meat and spawn from the shells and place them in a stewpan.

Make the mixture

  1. Add mace, cloves, nutmeg, pepper, salt, lemon juice, essence of ham, and anchovy liquor.

  2. Simmer the mixture over low heat for 10 minutes.

  3. Pound the meat in a mortar until smooth.

  4. Reduce the cooking liquid until it thickens, then mix it with the pounded meat and butter.

Pot and store

  1. Press the mixture into small flat preserving pots.

  2. Cover the mixture with clarified butter and let it cool.

  3. Once cooled, cover the pots with white paper and store them in a dry place.

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. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  3. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  5. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster
Provides the main body of meat that is pounded into a smooth, spreadable texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the potted mixture a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
Anchovy liquor
Adds a savoury, salty depth that enhances the seafood flavour.
Essence of ham
Contributes a savoury, meaty note that rounds out the lobster flavour.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich lobster and butter.

The step that matters

Reduce the cooking liquid until it thickens. Reducing concentrates the flavour and body of the liquid, so it adds depth and helps bind the pounded meat. Under-reducing leaves the mixture thin and watery; over-reducing can make it overly salty or dry.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, clove, nutmeg, pepper, lemon, ham, anchovy):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, clove, nutmeg, pepper, lemon, ham, anchovy. 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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