Skip to main content
Main

New Brighton Potted Lobster

A preserved lobster dish made by boiling, pounding, seasoning, layering with coral, and baking in butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Nutmeg and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

New Brighton Potted Lobster

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Cook and prepare the lobster

  1. Boil the lobster in water for 30 minutes.

  2. Remove all the meat from the body and claws, and pound it in a mortar.

  3. Add nutmeg, mace, cayenne, and salt to the pounded meat.

  4. Beat the coral separately.

Layer and bake

  1. Layer the white meat and coral in a large potting can, pressing down hard for a marbled effect.

  2. Cover with fresh butter and place in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 30 minutes.

Clarify the butter and pot

  1. Once cooled, remove the butter and clarify it by placing it in a jar set in boiling water.

  2. Pack the lobster mixture into small potting cans, pressing down firmly.

  3. Pour the clarified butter over the lobster and secure the covers tightly.

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. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Nutmeg + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  4. Mace + buttertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,405 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Lobster + nutmegtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together458 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

Mace and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,405 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 sweet, firm meat that forms the body of the potted dish.
Butter
Seals the surface and carries moisture and richness, keeping the potted meat from drying out.

The step that matters

Pressing the lobster into the cans. Firm packing removes air pockets so the potted meat holds together and sets smoothly. Loose packing lets air in, which can spoil the meat and weakens the marbled layers.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, nutmeg, 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.

You might also like

Lobster SauceLobster Sauce174 recipesLobster CroquettesLobster Croquettes99 recipesLobster BallsLobster Balls7 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipes