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Lobster Au Gbatin

A baked lobster dish topped with breadcrumbs and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Lobster Au Gbatin

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the lobster

  1. Split the lobster in half and carefully remove the meat without breaking the shells.

  2. Break the claws and extract the meat.

  3. Mince the lobster meat and place it in a saucepan with butter.

Make the filling

  1. Add the egg yolk and white sauce, then season with salt, pepper, and cayenne.

  2. Stir over low heat for a few minutes.

Bake and serve

  1. Fill the lobster shells with the mixture and sprinkle breadcrumbs on top.

  2. Brush with oiled butter and bake at 400°F (200°C) until brown.

  3. Serve on a folded napkin, garnished with parsley.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Lobster
Provides the main meat, which is minced and bound into the filling.
Egg yolk
Acts as a binder that thickens the filling and helps it set when heated.
White sauce
Adds moisture and creaminess so the minced lobster stays soft rather than dry.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavour and helps the top brown in the oven.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp topping that browns under heat.

The step that matters

Stir the filling over low heat. Egg yolk thickens when heated, but too much heat too fast can scramble it into grainy lumps. Gentle heat keeps the filling smooth and evenly bound before it goes into the shells.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Tarragonfits about as well
  2. Capersfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Nutmegfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, butter, egg, sauce, pepper. 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.

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