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Lobster Newburg

A creamy lobster dish with butter, brandy, sherry, egg yolks, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Brandy and sherry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,209 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Lobster Newburg

Ingredients

Directions

Make the lobster

  1. Melt the butter in a frying pan over medium heat.

  2. Add the lobster cut into small pieces and cook slowly for 5 minutes.

  3. Stir in the brandy, sherry, salt, and pepper, and cook for another 5 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. In a bowl, beat together the egg yolks and cream.

  2. Add the egg and cream mixture to the pan, stirring constantly for 1.5 minutes.

  3. Serve immediately.

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. Brandy + sherrytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  4. Butter + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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 and sweet, delicate flavour of the dish.
Butter
Carries the flavour and gives the lobster a rich, glossy coating while it cooks.
Egg yolks
Thicken the cream into a smooth sauce as they gently heat and set.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, forming the body of the sauce with the egg yolks.
Brandy
Adds a warm, aromatic depth of flavour to the lobster and sauce.
Sherry
Adds sweetness and a mellow, nutty acidity that rounds out the sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the egg and cream mixture. Egg yolks thicken when gently heated but scramble if they get too hot or are stirred too little. Stirring constantly over moderate heat keeps the sauce smooth and prevents curdling.

“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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