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Lobster, Sauce Piquant for

A quick mustard-based sauce for lobster, made with vinegar, butter, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and vinegar 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 Piquant for

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Mix the mustard, salt, and pepper with the cold water until smooth.

  2. Gradually add the vinegar while stirring.

  3. Heat gently over the fire until the vinegar is hot.

  4. Add the butter and stir until melted.

Serve

  1. 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. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

  5. Mustard + buttertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,003 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Raw mustard
Adds a sharp, pungent flavour that cuts through the richness of the butter.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that gives the sauce its piquant, tangy character.
Fresh butter
Melts into the sauce to add richness and a smooth, silky texture.

The step that matters

Heat gently over the fire until the vinegar is hot.. Overheating can cause the butter added later to separate or turn oily, so the sauce should be warmed only until the vinegar is hot.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Cabbagefits less well
  4. Onionfits less well

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