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Creamed Lobster

A lobster dish simmered in cream, onion, butter, and flour, topped with breadcrumbs and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Lobster and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,050 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Creamed Lobster

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the sauce

  1. In a pot, heat the cream with the whole onion until it boils, then remove the onion.

  2. Season the cream with butter, salt, and pepper.

  3. Mix the flour and milk together, then stir into the hot cream until rich and creamy.

Assemble and bake

  1. Remove from heat and add the lobster pieces.

  2. Transfer the mixture into small baking dishes, top with bread crumbs, and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for a few minutes until browned.

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 + creamtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,050 recipes

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

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster
Provides the main protein and sweet flavor that the creamy sauce carries.
Cream
Forms the rich, thick base that gives the dish its body and moisture.
Flour
Thickens the hot cream so it turns rich and creamy rather than watery.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp topping that browns in the oven, adding texture contrast.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the cream, rounding its flavor.

The step that matters

Stirring the flour and milk into the hot cream. Flour must be fully dispersed in liquid before or as it meets the hot cream, or it forms lumps. Stirring steadily while the cream is hot lets starch swell evenly and thicken the sauce smoothly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, cream, butter, pepper, flour, milk, bread):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Spinachfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, cream, butter, pepper, flour, milk, bread. 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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