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Deviled Lobster

A lobster dish with mustard, cayenne, salt, vinegar, and butter, simmered and served with the lobster coral.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 the lobster

  1. Remove the meat from the boiled lobster and reserve the coral.

  2. Season the lobster meat with mustard, cayenne, salt, and table sauce.

Make the deviled mixture

  1. Stew the mixture in a covered saucepan with just enough hot water to prevent burning.

  2. Rub the coral smooth, then add vinegar until it is thin enough to pour easily.

  3. Stir the coral into the saucepan before the mixture boils.

  4. Add the butter and allow to boil once more, then remove from heat immediately to avoid toughening the meat.

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. Lobster + saucetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  4. Mustard + saucetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,120 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Meat + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together855 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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; gentle heat keeps it tender rather than toughened.
Coral
Adds richness and colour to the sauce, thickening it as it cooks.
Butter
Adds fat and a smooth, rich mouthfeel to the finished mixture.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that balances the richness of the lobster.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and thins the coral for pouring.

The step that matters

Removing the pan from heat after the final boil. Boiling again after the butter is added can toughen the delicate lobster meat. Removing it from heat immediately keeps the texture tender and prevents the sauce from breaking.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Mustardthe original
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Shallotfits less well
  4. Onionfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, meat, pepper, sauce, vinegar, butter. 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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