Name: Deviled Lobster
Ingredients: lobster, cut into pieces; 3 tablespoons butter; 1 tablespoon butter (for paste); 1 teaspoon curry powder; ½ teaspoon prepared mustard; ½ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce; ¼ teaspoon salt

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

Coat each lobster piece with a paste made from 1 tablespoon butter, curry powder, prepared mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and salt.

Cook

Heat 3 tablespoons butter in a frying pan.
Sauté the coated lobster pieces in the hot butter until cooked through.

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.

Lobster + saucetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,095 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Mustard + saucetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,120 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Lobster + mustardtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together394 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Lobster + buttertop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,609 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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: Forms the main body of the dish and becomes tender and firm as it cooks through.
Butter: Carries the spices and gives the lobster richness and a golden surface when sautéed.
Curry powder: Adds warm, aromatic spice flavour that coats the lobster pieces.
Prepared mustard: Adds sharp, tangy bite that balances the richness of the butter.
Worcestershire sauce: Adds savoury depth and a touch of acidity to the paste.

The step that matters

Sauté the coated lobster until cooked through. Lobster turns rubbery when overcooked, so it should be heated only until the flesh turns opaque and firm. The paste can also scorch in the butter if the heat is too high, which would make the coating bitter.