Skip to main content
Main

Lobster Farcie

A lobster dish stuffed with a creamy lobster and egg mixture baked in scallop shells.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Lobster Farcie

Oven, in the book's wordsA warm oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a warm oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Stir in the flour until well combined.

  3. Gradually add the warm milk, stirring constantly.

  4. Season with salt, pepper, and cayenne; cook until thickened.

Fill and bake

  1. Remove from heat and stir in the lobster meat, chopped eggs, and parsley.

  2. Butter the scallop shells and fill them with the lobster mixture.

  3. Sprinkle breadcrumbs on top of each filled shell.

  4. Place in a warm oven at 350°F (175°C) to brown.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster meat
Forms the main filling and provides the dish's core flavour and texture.
Butter
Enriches the sauce and adds richness and flavour to the base.
Flour
Thickens the milk and butter into a smooth sauce that holds the filling together.
Milk
Forms the liquid of the sauce, giving it body and a creamy texture when thickened.
Hard boiled eggs
Add body and a firm, slightly crumbly texture to the filling.

The step that matters

Cook the sauce until thickened. Flour must be cooked in the butter and milk until the starch swells and thickens; if it is underdone the sauce stays thin and can taste raw, and it will not hold the filling together.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, meat, egg, butter, flour, milk, pepper):

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, meat, egg, butter, flour, milk, 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.

You might also like

Lobster SauceLobster Sauce174 recipesLobster CroquettesLobster Croquettes99 recipesMeat CroquettesMeat Croquettes52 recipesMeatballsMeatballs37 recipes