Skip to main content
Main

Devilled Lobster

A lobster dish where the meat is seasoned with mustard, cayenne, salt, sauce, and butter, then simmered with coral and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Devilled Lobster

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster

  1. Extract the meat from the boiled lobster and mince it finely. Reserve the coral.

  2. Season the lobster meat with mustard, cayenne, coarse sea salt, and pungent sauce.

  3. Toss and stir the seasoned lobster until well mixed.

Make the dressing

  1. Rub the coral smooth, moistening it with vinegar until it is thin enough to pour easily.

  2. Prepare the dressing before heating the lobster meat.

Cook and finish

  1. Place the lobster in a covered porcelain saucepan with just enough hot water to prevent burning.

  2. Heat the lobster meat until it boils once before adding the coral and vinegar.

  3. Stir the coral into the saucepan.

  4. Stir in the butter.

  5. When it boils again, remove the pan from the heat to avoid toughening the meat.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Mustard + saucetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,120 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster meat
Forms the main body of the dish, carrying the seasoning and dressing.
Coral (in the method)
Adds richness and a smooth, thickened texture when rubbed and stirred into the dish.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel to the finished dish.
Vinegar
Thins the coral to a pourable consistency and adds a sharp acidity.

The step that matters

Remove the pan from the heat after the second boil. Lobster meat is protein that toughens when overcooked. Taking it off the heat once it boils again keeps the meat tender and moist.

Swap the mustard

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, pepper, sauce, vinegar, 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