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Lobster a LA Newberg

A lobster dish simmered in butter, sherry, brandy, and a creamy egg yolk sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Sherry and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,209 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Lobster a LA Newberg

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster

  1. Boil the lobsters until thoroughly cooked.

  2. Remove the meat from the shells, keeping the claws intact.

  3. Cut the tail of each lobster in half lengthwise.

  4. Remove the thread and bag from the center of the tail.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter over medium heat in a flat copper pan.

  2. Add the lobster meat and simmer for 5 minutes.

  3. Add the sherry and brandy.

  4. Let the mixture boil for 2 minutes.

  5. Mix the egg yolks, cayenne pepper, salt, and thick cream until well combined.

  6. Pour the egg mixture over the lobster while stirring continuously.

  7. Do not let the sauce boil.

  8. Continue stirring until the sauce thickens.

Serve

  1. Serve immediately.

  2. Add more sherry before serving (optional for richer flavor).

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. Sherry + brandytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  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. Butter + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Butter + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,127 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster
Provides the main sweet, tender meat that forms the body of the dish.
Egg yolks
Thicken the cream into a smooth, rich sauce as they set gently with heat.
Thick cream
Adds richness and moisture, carrying the sauce to a silky texture.
Butter
Adds fat and a rich, nutty flavor to the base in which the lobster cooks.
Sherry
Adds acidity and depth, lifting the richness of the cream and egg sauce.
Brandy
Adds aromatic warmth and depth to the sauce.

The step that matters

Do not let the sauce boil. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat; if the sauce boils, the proteins scramble and curdle, leaving the sauce grainy instead of smooth.

“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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