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Lobster Soup

A broth of veal with lobster meat, thickened with a butter‑flour roux and seasoned with mace, nutmeg, lemon peel, cayenne, and anchovy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Lobster Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the lobsters

  1. Boil the lobsters until cooked.

  2. Let the lobsters cool.

  3. Split the tails of the lobsters.

  4. Remove the meat from the tails.

  5. Crack the claws.

  6. Cut the meat into bite-sized pieces.

  7. Remove the coral and soft part of the body.

  8. Crush part of the coral in a mortar.

  9. Mix lobster meat with crushed coral, mace, nutmeg, lemon peel, cayenne, anchovy, and egg yolk to make force-meat balls.

Make the broth

  1. Boil the veal broth with bruised lobster legs and shells for 20 minutes.

  2. Strain the broth.

  3. Crush the live spawn with a little butter and flour.

  4. Rub the mixture through a sieve.

  5. Add the mixture to the strained broth.

Finish the soup

  1. Stir in the lobster meat and remaining coral.

  2. Let the soup simmer gently for 10 minutes.

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. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  3. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Anchovy + eggtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,330 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Anchovy + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobsters
Provide the main flesh and rich shellfish flavor of the soup.
Veal broth
Forms the liquid base that carries the seasonings and lobster flavor.
Egg yolk
Binds the force-meat balls so they hold together during cooking.
Butter
Adds richness and helps mash the coral into a smooth mixture.
Flour
Thickens the coral mixture so it can be rubbed through a sieve and blended in.
Anchovy
Adds savory depth that rounds out the seafood flavor.

The step that matters

Rubbing the coral mixture through a sieve. Pushing the crushed coral, butter and flour through a sieve removes lumps and fibrous bits, giving the soup a smooth texture. Skipping this leaves grainy specks in the broth.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, veal, nutmeg, lemon, anchovy, egg, butter):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, veal, nutmeg, lemon, anchovy, egg, 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.

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