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Lobster Soup

A soup made from lobster meat simmered in a butter and flour base with salt and red pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Lobster Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster

  1. Plunge the lobster(s) into a large pot half full of boiling salted water and boil until the shell is red.

  2. Remove the lobster from the water and cool until you can handle it.

  3. Remove the flesh from the shell, discarding the soft fins, stomach, and intestine, but saving the coral and green fat.

  4. Cut the lobster flesh into small pieces.

Make and serve the soup

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter and flour over medium heat until bubbling.

  2. Gradually add the boiling water, stirring until the soup is smooth.

  3. Add the prepared lobster, season with salt and red pepper, and let it boil for 2-3 minutes.

  4. Serve hot.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Lobster + buttertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  3. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

  5. Lobster + flourtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,034 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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
Provides the main protein and sweet, rich seafood flavor of the soup.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor, and forms the base of the roux with flour.
Flour
Cooked with butter into a roux that thickens the soup and gives it a smooth body.

The step that matters

Gradually add the boiling water while stirring. Adding liquid slowly to the hot butter and flour roux lets the starch disperse evenly, so the soup thickens smoothly instead of forming lumps.

“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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