Skip to main content
Main

Scolloped Lobster

A lobster dish baked in a white sauce with anchovy paste, egg yolks, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Sauce and anchovy 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 ↓

Scolloped Lobster

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the lobster filling

  1. In a stewpan, combine the chopped lobster meat, white sauce, butter, and anchovy paste.

  2. Season with salt, pepper, nutmeg, cayenne, and lemon juice; stir over low heat for a few minutes.

  3. Remove from heat and mix in the egg yolks.

Fill and brown

  1. Fill scallop shells with the mixture, sprinkle with fried breadcrumbs and drizzle with oiled butter.

  2. Brown in the oven at 400°F (200°C) or under a salamander.

Serve

  1. Serve on a folded napkin, garnished with crispy 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. Sauce + anchovytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  4. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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 filling and gives it its seafood flavour.
White sauce
Provides a creamy base that keeps the filling moist and binds it together.
Egg yolks
Thicken the filling when gently heated, giving it a smooth, set texture.
Anchovy paste
Adds a salty, savoury depth that enhances the richness of the lobster.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the top brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Mix in the egg yolks off the heat. Egg yolks thicken when heated but can scramble if they get too hot. Removing the pan from the heat before adding them keeps the filling smooth and creamy.

“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

Lemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesLobster SauceLobster Sauce174 recipesLobster CroquettesLobster Croquettes99 recipesMeat CroquettesMeat Croquettes52 recipes