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Celery Lobster

A creamy lobster and celery dish served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Celery Lobster

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. In a double boiler, melt the butter and whisk in the flour until smooth.

  2. Gradually add the milk, stirring continuously until the mixture is smooth.

  3. Add the minced celery and cook for 3 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in the lobster, salt, cayenne, and egg yolks until thickened.

  2. Serve immediately with a squeeze of lemon juice.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Lobster + meattop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together909 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

Lobster meat
Provides the main protein and sweet, delicate flavour of the dish.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour through the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth white sauce as it cooks.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding moisture and creaminess.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the sauce as they set with gentle heat.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and a fresh, savoury aroma.

The step that matters

Stir in the egg yolks gently over low heat. Egg yolks thicken by coagulating proteins at moderate temperatures. If the mixture gets too hot or boils, the yolks can scramble and curdle, leaving the sauce grainy instead of smooth and thickened.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, meat, butter, flour, milk, egg, 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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