Name: Lobster Sauce
Ingredients: coral and spawn of a boiled lobster; 2 tablespoons butter; ¼ cup water or vinegar; 1 teaspoon made mustard; salt to taste; pepper to taste; optional: chopped lobster meat

Why it works: Vinegar and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Lobster Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the coral

Put the coral and spawn of the boiled lobster into a mortar with 2 tablespoons of butter.
Pound it to a smooth mass.
Rub it through a sieve.

Make the sauce

Melt ½ cup of sweet butter with ¼ cup of water or vinegar.
Add 1 teaspoon of made mustard, the coral and spawn, and a little salt and pepper.
Stir until smooth.

Serve

Serve.
Optionally, stir in some chopped lobster meat.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,430 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Mustard + meattop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together855 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Lobster + meattop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together909 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Coral and spawn: Supplies the rich lobster flavour and colour that gives the sauce its character.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and a smooth, glossy body to the sauce.
Made mustard: Adds sharpness and helps keep the butter and liquid blended together.
Water or vinegar: Provides the liquid base, with vinegar adding acidity that brightens the sauce.

The step that matters

Rub the coral through a sieve. Pounding and sieving breaks up the coral and removes lumps, so the finished sauce stays smooth rather than grainy.

Swap the mustard

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

Mustardthe original
Capsicumfits about as well
Shallotfits less well
Potatofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, butter, vinegar, pepper, meat. 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.