Skip to main content
Main

Dressed Lobster, Hot or Cold

A lobster served with a mustard‑vinegar sauce, optionally hot with Italian sauce or cold with egg yolk dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Dressed Lobster, Hot or Cold

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster

  1. Remove the lobster from the shell, keeping the tails and claws intact.

  2. Split the tail and place it on a dish.

Make the cold dressing

  1. For the cold version, mash the yolks of the boiled eggs with a spoon.

  2. Add a few drops of water to soften them.

  3. Mix in mustard, oil, vinegar, anchovy essence, pepper, and elder vinegar.

  4. Pour the sauce over the lobster and garnish with parsley.

Make the hot version and serve

  1. For the hot version, place the lobster in a saucepan with Italian sauce and anchovy essence.

  2. Serve garnished with croutons.

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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Lobster + anchovytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together470 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  4. Lobster + saucetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster
Provides the main body of the dish, with the tail and claws kept whole for presentation.
Boiled eggs
Their yolks, mashed, form the base of the cold dressing and add richness and body.
Oil
Emulsifies with the egg yolks and mustard to give the dressing a smooth, creamy texture.
Mustard
Helps bind the dressing and adds a sharp flavour that balances the richness of the oil and yolks.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and cuts through the richness of the oil and yolks.

The step that matters

Mixing the egg yolks with oil and mustard. Oil must be added slowly so it emulsifies into the mashed yolks and mustard. Adding it too fast can cause the dressing to split into greasy droplets rather than a smooth, creamy sauce.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Celeryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, egg, mustard, vinegar, anchovy, pepper, sauce. 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