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Stuffed Lobster

A lobster shell filled with a creamy lobster mixture, topped with breadcrumbs and butter, baked until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Lobster and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,050 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Stuffed Lobster

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the lobster

  1. Split the lobster in two.

  2. Remove all the meat and chop it finely.

Make the filling

  1. Mix cream, salt, cayenne pepper, curry powder, and flour in a saucepan until thick.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Stir in the minced lobster and heat through.

Stuff and bake

  1. Stuff the lobster mixture back into the shells.

  2. Cover with bread crumbs.

  3. Drizzle with melted butter.

  4. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until browned.

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. Lobster + creamtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster
Provides the main meat that forms the filling and is the dish's base.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, and thickens with flour into a creamy filling.
Flour
Thickens the cream mixture so the filling holds together in the shells.
Bread crumbs
Forms a crisp topping that browns in the oven.
Melted butter
Adds fat that helps the topping brown and gives richness.

The step that matters

Thicken the cream mixture fully before adding the lobster. Flour must be cooked with the liquid until thick and boiling so it sets and loses its raw taste. A thin filling will run out of the shells and bake up watery.

“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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