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Lobster Newburg

A creamy lobster dish with butter, cream, egg yolks, brandy, and cayenne pepper, served on toast or crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 Newburg

Ingredients

Directions

Make the Newburg

  1. Melt the butter in a pan and sauté the lobster meat for 2 to 3 minutes.

  2. In a bowl, beat the egg yolks slightly and then add the cream.

  3. Add the egg yolk and cream mixture to the sautéing lobster, stirring over boiling water until thickened, about the consistency of medium white sauce.

  4. Stir in the brandy and season with cayenne pepper.

Serve

  1. Serve on toast points or crackers.

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. Lobster + meattop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together909 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Cream + brandytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,635 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

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 body of the dish and provides its sweet, delicate flavor.
Egg yolks
Thicken the cream mixture as they gently set, giving the sauce its body.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, and combines with the yolks to make a smooth sauce.
Butter
Adds fat and flavor, helping to cook the lobster gently in the pan.
Brandy
Adds aroma and a warm, complex flavor to the sauce.

The step that matters

Thickening the egg yolk and cream mixture. Egg yolks set at about 160°F and can scramble if heated too quickly or too hot. Stirring gently over simmering water, rather than direct high heat, keeps the sauce smooth and thickened.

“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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