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Farcied Lobster

Stuffed lobster with a creamy butter sauce, seasoned with cayenne and parsley, baked until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Farcied Lobster

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the sauce

  1. Heat the butter in a saucepan until it hisses.

  2. Stir in the flour and remove from heat.

  3. Gradually add the hot milk, seasoning with salt, cayenne, parsley, and baking soda.

  4. Return to heat and bring to a boil, then remove from heat.

  5. Stir in the pounded egg yolks and bread crumbs.

Stuff and bake

  1. Add the lobster meat and mix well.

  2. Wash and dry the lobster shell, then stuff it with the mixture.

  3. Cover the open side with fine bread crumbs and dot with butter.

  4. Sprinkle with salt and paprika, then bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until browned.

Serve

  1. Serve with sliced lemon and garnish with curled parsley.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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

Butter
Enriches the sauce and helps the crumb topping brown in the oven.
Flour
Thickens the hot milk into a smooth, binding white sauce.
Hot milk
Forms the liquid base that sets into a creamy, moist filling.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the filling as it cooks.
Lobster meat
Provides the main flavour and the substance of the filling.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid in the filling and form a browned crust on top.

The step that matters

Return the sauce to heat and boil it. The flour must be fully heated in the liquid so it thickens properly. Undercooked flour leaves a pasty taste and a thin, loose filling that will not hold its shape.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, milk, pepper, egg, bread, lobster. 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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