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Lobster, Stewed

A lobster stew made with butter, mustard, vinegar, wine, and spices, garnished with parsley and lemon.

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, Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and stew

  1. Carefully pick the meat from the lobster and cut it into dice.

  2. In an enamelled stewpan, combine the lobster meat, salt, pepper, cayenne, butter, mustard, and vinegar.

  3. Stew gently for 5 to 6 minutes.

  4. Add the light wine and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes longer.

Serve

  1. Serve garnished with parsley and sliced lemon.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Mustard + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,588 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  5. Vinegar + winetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,493 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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 dish and becomes tender when gently cooked.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, giving the stew a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
Mustard
Adds a sharp, pungent note that balances the richness of the butter.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the rich lobster and butter.
Light wine
Adds aromatic depth and acidity to the sauce as it simmers.

The step that matters

Stewing gently. High heat toughens lobster protein and can cause the butter to separate. Gentle heat keeps the meat tender and the butter emulsified in the sauce.

Swap the parsley

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

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

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