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Lobster Quenelles

Lobster quenelles are small, poached lobster meat dumplings served in hot soup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Meat and lobster work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 909 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Lobster Quenelles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Pound the lobster meat from the claws and tail, then rub it through a wire sieve.

  2. In a mortar, combine the cold panada with one egg, half the lobster, pepper, and salt. Pound to a cream.

  3. Add the remaining lobster and the second egg to the mixture, and pound thoroughly.

Shape and poach

  1. Grease a deep frying pan.

  2. Shape the mixture into small quenelles using two teaspoons dipped in hot water.

  3. Place the quenelles in the greased frying pan. Pour boiling water over them.

  4. Poach for about 12 minutes.

  5. Drain the quenelles on a cloth.

Serve

  1. Place them in a tureen. Pour hot soup over the lobster quenelles.

  2. Serve.

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. Meat + lobstertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together909 recipes

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

  2. Butter + meattop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + lobstertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

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

  5. Meat + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,777 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

Lobster meat
Provides the main flavor and the delicate texture of the quenelles.
Egg
Binds the mixture so the quenelles hold their shape while poaching.
Panada (in the method)
Adds body and softness, keeping the quenelles light and tender.

The step that matters

Pounding the mixture to a smooth cream. Thorough pounding evenly blends the lobster, egg and panada so the quenelles set smooth and light rather than grainy or crumbly when poached.

“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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