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Stewed Lobster

A lobster stew made with white stock, mace, cayenne, salt, flour, butter, and finished with vinegar or white wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Stewed Lobster

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Remove all the meat and soft parts from the lobster body and cut into small pieces.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the lobster pieces, white stock, mace, cayenne, and salt.

Stew and serve

  1. Dredge in flour and add butter, then stew for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring frequently.

  2. Once done, stir in vinegar or white wine before serving.

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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Lobster + meattop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together909 recipes

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

  4. Mace + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Flour and butter 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 meat and soft parts
Provides the main protein and sweet flavour that the stew is built around.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a light, smooth sauce as it stews.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the sauce.
White stock
Forms the cooking liquid that carries the flavour and gently cooks the lobster.
Vinegar or white wine
Adds a bright acidity that lifts the richness of the butter and sauce.

The step that matters

Stewing with flour and butter. Flour must be cooked in the liquid while stirring frequently so it thickens smoothly without lumps. Stewing too long or too hot can toughen the lobster, so keep it at a gentle simmer for the stated 10 to 15 minutes.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, meat, pepper, flour, butter, vinegar. 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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