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Deviled Lobster

A lobster dish with mustard, cayenne, salt, and butter, finished with a vinegar‑topped coral sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Lobster and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,095 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Deviled Lobster

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the meat from the boiled lobster and reserve the coral.

  2. Season the lobster meat with mustard, cayenne, salt, and table sauce.

  3. Prepare the dressing before heating the meat.

Cook and finish

  1. Stew the mixture in a covered saucepan with just enough hot water to prevent burning.

  2. Rub the coral smooth, adding vinegar until it is thin enough to pour easily, then stir it into the saucepan.

  3. Ensure the dressing boils only once before adding the coral.

  4. Stir in the butter, and when it boils again, remove it from heat immediately to avoid toughening the meat.

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 + saucetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  4. Mustard + saucetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,120 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Meat + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together855 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster meat
Forms the main body of the dish, so its texture sets the result.
Coral
Rubbed smooth and stirred in to add richness and colour to the dressing.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that balances the richness of the lobster.
Butter
Adds fat for a silky, rich mouthfeel in the finished dressing.

The step that matters

Removing the saucepan from heat after the butter boils. Overheating protein-rich lobster meat causes it to contract and toughen, so it should come off the heat as soon as the butter boils again.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, lobster, pepper, sauce, vinegar, butter):

  1. Mustardthe original
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Shallotfits less well
  4. Onionfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, lobster, pepper, sauce, vinegar, butter. 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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