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Lobster a LA Newburg

A lobster dish simmered with butter, wine, sugar, and a cream‑egg yolk mixture, served hot on toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Lobster and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,050 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Lobster a LA Newburg

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster

  1. Remove the boiled lobster meat from the shell and cut it into 1‑inch pieces.

  2. Season the lobster with salt and cayenne pepper.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a pan, add the lobster, and allow it to simmer for 5 minutes.

  2. Add the wine and sugar to the pan and cook for 3 minutes.

  3. Meanwhile, beat the yolks of the eggs lightly with the cream.

  4. Add the egg and cream mixture to the lobster and cook until thickened, stirring constantly.

Serve

  1. Serve hot on toast.

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

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

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Sherry + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster
Forms the main body of the dish, providing the meat that is seasoned and simmered.
Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce as they cook gently, giving it a smooth, creamy texture.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavour as it melts and cooks with the lobster.
Sweet cream
Adds moisture and richness, and blends with the yolks to form a smooth sauce.
Sherry or madeira
Adds acidity and aromatic depth, balancing the richness of the butter and yolks.

The step that matters

Adding the egg and cream mixture. Egg yolks thicken when heated gently, but if the mixture gets too hot it can curdle or scramble. Keep the heat moderate and stir constantly so the sauce thickens smoothly.

“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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