Why it works: Anchovy and sauce 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 ↓
Lobster Sauce for Turbot, Salmon, Etc
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the lobster
Boil the lobster.
Remove the meat from the shell and cut it into small square pieces.
Make the spawn paste
Put the spawn from under the tail into a mortar with the butter.
Pound the spawn until smooth.
Rub the mixture through a sieve.
Cover until needed.
Make the drawn butter
Stir 4 tablespoons of flour mixed with a little cold water into 2 cups of boiling water to make the drawn butter.
Let the mixture boil and thicken.
Remove from heat and stir in 2 tablespoons of butter and salt to taste.
Finish the sauce
Add all ingredients for the sauce except the lobster, and mix well.
Gently fold in the lobster pieces without stirring too much to keep them intact.
Do not boil the sauce, as it should maintain a bright red color.
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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Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,057 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Lobster + anchovytop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together470 recipes
Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
-
Lobster + saucetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,095 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Lobster + creamtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,050 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Lobster
- Provides the sauce's main body and texture through the pieces folded in at the end.
- Flour (in the method)
- Thickens the boiling water into the drawn butter, giving the sauce its body.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, carrying flavor and giving a smooth mouthfeel.
- Cream
- Adds softness and richness, smoothing the sauce and mellowing its sharpness.
- Anchovy sauce
- Adds savory depth and saltiness that rounds out the sauce.
The step that matters
Do not boil the sauce after the lobster goes in. Boiling toughens the delicate lobster meat and dulls the bright red color from the spawn, so the sauce should be kept hot but not boiling.
Swap the mace
The recipe marks mace as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, butter, anchovy, sauce, cream, pepper):
- Capersfits better
- Tarragonfits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, butter, anchovy, sauce, cream, 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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