Name: Lobster Soup
Ingredients: 2 quarts chicken stock or broth; 1 can of lobsters, picked into pieces; 1 onion, chopped finely; 1 stalk of celery, chopped; 1 pint chicken broth; 1 cup heavy cream; Salt and pepper to taste

Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Lobster Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Combine the chicken stock or broth, lobsters, onion, and celery in a pot.
Cook for one hour.
Strain the mixture.
Add an additional pint of chicken broth to the strained mixture.
Stir in the heavy cream.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.

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.

Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Lobster + creamtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,050 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,518 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,814 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobsters: Provide the main flavor and the meat that defines the soup.
Chicken stock or broth: Forms the liquid base that carries the soup's flavor.
Heavy cream: Adds richness and a smooth, velvety texture.
Onion: Adds savory aromatic depth as it softens in the broth.
Celery: Contributes subtle aromatic, vegetal flavor to the base.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, lobster, celery, cream, pepper):

Capsicumfits better
Mustardfits about as well
Spinachfits about as well
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, lobster, celery, cream, 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.