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Sauce

Lobster Sauce

A sauce made from boiled lobster coral and spawn, butter, water or vinegar, mustard, salt, pepper, and optional lobster meat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Lobster Sauce

Why it works: Vinegar and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Lobster Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the coral

  1. Put the coral and spawn of the boiled lobster into a mortar with 1 tablespoon of butter.

  2. Pound it to a smooth mass, then rub it through a sieve.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt nearly ¼ pound of sweet butter with ⅓ cup of water or vinegar.

  2. Add 1 teaspoon of made mustard, the coral and spawn, and a little salt and pepper.

  3. Stir until smooth and serve.

  4. Optionally, stir in some chopped lobster 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Mustard + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together855 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Coral and spawn
Gives the sauce its rich lobster flavour and orange colour.
Sweet butter
Forms the rich, fatty body of the sauce and carries flavour.
Made mustard
Adds sharpness that balances the richness of the butter.
Vinegar or water
Provides a thin liquid base and, if vinegar, a sharp acidity.

The step that matters

Melting the butter with the liquid. Butter is an emulsion of fat and water. If it is overheated or melted too fast, the fat separates from the liquid and the sauce turns greasy. Melting gently and stirring until smooth keeps it emulsified.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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