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Lobster a LA Brochette

A lobster and mushroom skewer served on bacon‑topped toast with a butter‑lemon‑parsley sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Lobster a LA Brochette

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Sprinkle the lobster pieces with salt, cayenne, and mace.

  2. String the lobster and mushrooms onto slender skewers, alternating with 4 pieces of lobster and 3 mushrooms per skewer.

  3. Broil the bacon until crisp.

  4. Cut the toast into slender strips, each over an inch wide.

Cook and serve

  1. Broil the skewers over clear coals, turning often.

  2. Place a slice of bacon on each toast strip, then add a skewer of lobster and mushrooms.

  3. Spread the skewers with a sauce made from butter beaten with lemon juice and minced 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 + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Mushroom + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster
Provides the main meaty texture and sweet flavor of the dish.
Mushrooms
Add moisture and juiciness that keep the skewers from drying during broiling.
Breakfast bacon
Adds smoky, salty fat that crisps and flavors the toast beneath.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries the lemon and parsley flavors over the skewers.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich lobster and butter.

The step that matters

Broil the skewers over clear coals, turning often.. Lobster is lean and cooks quickly, so frequent turning and close attention prevent the outside from drying or toughening before the center is just cooked through.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, lobster, mushroom, pepper, bread, butter, lemon):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, lobster, mushroom, pepper, bread, butter, lemon. 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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