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Broiled Live Lobster

Broiled Live Lobster is a lobster cooked by broiling or baking after being split and seasoned with olive oil, salt, pepper, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Olive and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 30,263 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Broiled Live Lobster

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Split the lobster in half.

  2. Glaze the meat side with olive oil.

Broil

  1. Broil the lobster on a hot fire, meat side down.

  2. When well broiled, season with coarse sea salt, cayenne pepper, and plenty of melted butter.

Alternative cooking

  1. Alternatively, place the lobster in a skillet.

  2. Season the lobster.

  3. Bake the lobster in the oven.

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. Olive + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

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

  2. Olive + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,887 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Lobster + buttertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

  5. Lobster + olivetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together252 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster
Provides the main meat, which is lean and sets quickly under high heat.
Olive oil
Coats the meat so it browns evenly and does not dry out under the broiler.
Melted butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying moisture and flavor into the cooked meat.

The step that matters

Broiling meat side down. Lobster meat is lean and cooks fast. Too much heat or time dries and toughens it, so watch it closely as it turns well broiled.

“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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