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Stewed Lobster

A lobster stew with butter, pepper, sea salt, green dressing, and port or sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and sherry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,505 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Stewed Lobster

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the lobster into pieces about an inch square.

  2. Place the lobster pieces in a stew pan and pour in the water.

  3. Add the butter, pepper, and coarse sea salt.

  4. Mix in the green dressing of the lobster.

Cook

  1. Stir over medium heat for about 10 minutes.

  2. Just before removing from heat, add the port or sherry.

  3. Let it scald, but do not let it boil.

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 + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

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

  3. Pepper + sherrytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

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

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

  5. Lobster + sherrytop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together215 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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 stew and provides the dish's flavor and texture.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor and giving the stew a silky mouthfeel.
Green dressing of the lobster
Tomalley adds concentrated, rich lobster flavor and thickens the broth slightly.
Port or sherry
Adds aromatic depth and a touch of sweetness and acidity to the broth.

The step that matters

Do not let it boil. Boiling toughens the delicate lobster meat and can cause the butter and broth to separate, so keep the stew at a gentle scald.

“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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