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Lobster Sauce

A sauce made from eggs, water, lobster spawn, mustard, butter or oil, pepper, sea salt, vinegar, and small pieces of lobster meat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Lobster Sauce

Why it works: Mustard and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Lobster Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Boil the eggs for 3 minutes.

  2. Mix the eggs with water and lobster spawn.

  3. Rub the mixture smooth.

Finish the sauce

  1. Stir in mustard, drawn butter or salad oil, pepper, coarse sea salt, and vinegar.

  2. Cut the lobster meat into very small pieces.

  3. Stew the pieces until tender.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  3. Mustard + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together855 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Lobster + meattop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together909 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg yolks bind the sauce and give it a rich, smooth body.
Lobster spawn
Adds concentrated lobster flavour and a rich colour to the sauce.
Drawn butter or salad oil
Supplies fat that emulsifies with the egg mixture, giving a creamy texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the richness of the fat.
Mustard
Its natural emulsifiers help hold the oil and egg mixture together.

The step that matters

Stir in the fat and vinegar gradually. Adding the butter or oil too quickly to the egg mixture can cause it to split. Stirring steadily while adding the fat lets the egg proteins emulsify it into a smooth, stable sauce.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, lobster, butter, pepper, vinegar, meat):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Shallotfits less well
  4. Asparagusfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, lobster, butter, pepper, vinegar, meat. 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.

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