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Curry Lobster

A lobster dish simmered in a butter, flour, curry powder, and cream sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Curry Lobster

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the lobster into pieces or leave it whole.

Make the curry sauce

  1. In a pot, combine hot water, butter, flour, curry powder, pepper, salt, and the soft portion of the lobster.

  2. Stir the mixture together and add the cream.

  3. Bring to a boil, then pour over the lobster.

  4. Let it simmer for 2 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. Lobster + creamtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,050 recipes

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Lobster + buttertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  5. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 flavour that the curry sauce coats.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying the curry flavour through the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the liquid into a smooth sauce that clings to the lobster.
Curry powder
Supplies the spiced aroma and flavour that define the dish.
Cream
Adds richness and body, softening the sauce's heat and sharpness.

The step that matters

Stir the flour into the hot liquid before adding the cream. Flour thickens only when its starch is evenly dispersed and heated; clumps stay raw and floury. Whisking it smooth first gives a silky sauce rather than lumps.

“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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