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Lobster a PAmericaine

A lobster dish cooked with butter, brandy, water, beef extract, salt, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Lobster a PAmericaine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster

  1. Split the lobster in half, remove the gravel from the head and intestines from the tail.

  2. Cut the lobster into 2‑inch pieces and crack the claws.

Cook

  1. Melt the butter in a chafing dish, add the lobster, cover, and cook for 5 minutes, turning once.

  2. Add the brandy, water, beef extract, salt, and Cayenne pepper.

  3. Cover and cook for 25 minutes, then 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. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  2. Butter + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,127 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Butter + beeftop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

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

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster
Provides the main protein, which firms and turns opaque as it cooks.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor while the lobster cooks.
Brandy
Adds aromatic depth and acidity to the sauce as it simmers.
Beef extract
Adds concentrated savory, meaty flavor to the cooking liquid.

The step that matters

Covered cooking of the lobster. Cooking for the full 25 minutes under a lid can toughen lobster meat, since proteins tighten with prolonged heat. Watching the time and checking that the meat turns opaque and firm helps keep it tender.

“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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