Why it works: Lobster and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,609 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓
Lobster Butter
Ingredients
Directions
Make the butter
Remove the spawn from the lobster and pound it well in a mortar.
Add the fresh butter and mix thoroughly.
Rub the mixture through a fine sieve.
Store
Store in a cold place until needed.
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.
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Lobster + buttertop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,609 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Lobster spawn
- Provides the rich flavour and bright orange colour that defines the butter.
- Fresh butter
- Carries the spawn's flavour and colour, giving the mixture a smooth, spreadable fat base.
The step that matters
Rub the mixture through a fine sieve. Pounding alone leaves fibrous lobster shell and lumps that make the butter gritty. Pressing it through a fine sieve removes these particles and yields a smooth, even texture.
“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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