Skip to main content
Main

Lobster Souffle

A steamed lobster soufflé made with lobster meat, flour, butter, milk, egg yolks, egg whites, anchovy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, pepper, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Lobster Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Remove the meat from the lobster and cut it into small pieces.

  2. In a pan, melt the butter and mix in the flour to create a smooth paste.

  3. Add the milk and bring to a boil, then set aside.

Make the soufflé

  1. Pound the lobster spawn and mix it into the sauce along with the lobster meat, sauces, pepper, and salt.

  2. Stir in the egg yolks, then gently fold in the beaten egg whites.

  3. Butter a tin mold and line it with buttered paper.

  4. Pour the mixture into the mold and steam it slowly for 1½ hours.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. For the sauce, add a little milk to the remaining sauce, boil for 5 minutes, then add the remaining lobster spawn, butter, pepper, and salt.

  2. Strain the sauce around the soufflé and serve hot.

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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Lobster + anchovytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together470 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  3. Lobster + saucetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Beaten and folded in to lighten the mixture and give the soufflé its risen, airy structure.
Egg yolks
Enrich the sauce base and help it set into a rich, tender custard-like texture.
Flour
Thickens the melted butter and milk into a smooth base that holds the soufflé together.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour to the roux and the finishing sauce.
Milk
Forms the liquid of the white sauce, giving the soufflé base its moisture.
Lobster
Provides the main flavour and tender pieces of meat throughout the soufflé.

The step that matters

Fold the beaten egg whites gently. Egg whites trap air when beaten, and that air makes the soufflé rise. Vigorous stirring knocks the air out, so the mixture folds in slowly to keep it light.

“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.

You might also like

Lobster SauceLobster Sauce174 recipesLobster CroquettesLobster Croquettes99 recipesLobster BallsLobster Balls7 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipes