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Lobster Gumbo

A stew of lobster meat with tomatoes, okra, peppers, and a butter‑oil base, simmered in boiling water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and okra work together. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 327 recipes. Both carry damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Lobster Gumbo

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the lobster, turning to coat thoroughly.

  2. Add the boiling water and stew gently, covered, for 30 minutes.

  3. Keep the lobster meat warm over boiling water until ready to use.

Make the gumbo base

  1. In another pan, heat the oil, minced onion, and green pepper.

  2. Add the sliced tomatoes and okra, and cook until the mixture smokes.

  3. Pour in the lobster broth and simmer for 30 minutes.

  4. Rub the mixture through a fine colander and stir until almost dry over the fire.

Serve

  1. Serve the mixture on a hot platter, placing the lobster on top.

  2. Pass sliced lemon and toasted crackers with the dish.

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. Tomato + okratop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together327 recipes

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Onion + okratop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together715 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  4. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + okratop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together727 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster meat
Provides the main protein and sweet, delicate flavor that the gumbo is built around.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and moisture, breaking down into the body of the sauce.
Okra
Releases natural thickening mucilage that helps give the gumbo its body.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavor and helping coat the lobster.
Green pepper
Contributes fresh, slightly bitter vegetable flavor to the base.

The step that matters

Cook the mixture until it smokes. Cooking the tomatoes and okra at high heat until they smoke concentrates flavor and drives off water, so the base starts to reduce rather than stew. Heat that is too low leaves the mixture watery and dull.

Swap the okra

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Mustardfits about as well
  4. Okrathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, meat, butter, onion, tomato, pepper. 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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