Name: Stewed Lobster
Ingredients: 1 lobster, cut into small pieces; green fat from the lobster; a little roe from the lobster; ½ cup water or white veal stock; 2 tablespoons butter; 2 tablespoons flour; ¼ teaspoon pepper; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt'); ⅓ cup white wine

Why it works: Butter and white wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,083 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Stewed Lobster

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Cut the lobster into small pieces, including the green fat and a little roe.

Stew

In a saucepan, combine the lobster pieces with water or white veal stock.
Add butter and flour, pepper, salt, and white wine.
Let it stew for 10 to 15 minutes.

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.

Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,083 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Lobster + roetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Roe + buttertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together442 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Pepper + white winetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,433 recipes

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

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: Forms the main body of the dish and provides the sweet, savoury meat flavour.
Butter: Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour and giving the sauce a smooth mouthfeel.
Flour: Thickens the liquid into a stew-like sauce as it cooks.
White wine: Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the rich lobster and butter.

“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.