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Lobster a LA Newberg

A creamy lobster dish baked in shells with a mustard and cayenne sauce, served with cucumber salad.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and cucumber match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,281 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Lobster a LA Newberg

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the lobster

  1. Remove the meat from the lobster and cut it into dice.

  2. If using canned lobster, drain it well.

  3. Season the lobster with salt, cayenne, and mustard.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter and mix it with the flour.

  2. Gradually add the cream or milk, stirring until thickened.

  3. Bring the mixture to a boil, then add the seasoned lobster.

  4. Stir in the beaten egg yolk and mix well.

Bake and serve

  1. Spoon the mixture into lobster shells.

  2. Dust with cracker crumbs.

  3. Place in a 400°F (200°C) oven until hot.

  4. Mix diced cucumber with French dressing.

  5. Serve on lettuce leaves.

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 + cucumbertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,281 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Pepper + cucumbertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,991 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster
Provides the main protein and sweet, firm meat that forms the body of the dish.
Butter
Enriches the sauce with fat and flavour, and coats the flour to start the roux.
Flour
Thickens the butter and cream into a smooth sauce that holds the lobster together.
Cream or milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding richness and body when thickened.
Egg yolk
Enriches and thickens the sauce further, giving it a smoother, richer texture.

The step that matters

Stir in the egg yolk without curdling. Egg yolk thickens through gentle heat. If the sauce is boiling hot when the yolk goes in, the egg can scramble and turn grainy, so the sauce should be off the boil and stirred steadily.

Swap the cucumber

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, pepper, mustard, butter, flour, cream, egg):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, pepper, mustard, butter, flour, cream, egg. 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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