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Broiled Lobster

Broiled lobster tail and claws served with butter and Béchamel sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Broiled Lobster

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Split the meat of the lobster tail and claws.

  2. Season well with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  3. Cover with soft butter and dredge with flour.

Broil and serve

  1. Place in the broiler.

  2. Cook over a bright fire until golden brown.

  3. Arrange on a hot dish.

  4. Pour Béchamel sauce around.

  5. Serve.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Flour + saucetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

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 tail and claws
Forms the main meat that is cooked and served.
Soft butter
Adds fat and moisture, helping the surface brown in the heat.
Flour
Dusted over the butter, it helps the surface form a golden crust.
Béchamel sauce
Served around the lobster as a creamy accompaniment.

The step that matters

Cook over a bright fire until golden brown. The surface needs enough heat to brown quickly while the lobster meat stays tender. Lobster meat is delicate and overcooks easily, so watching the colour closely matters.

“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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