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Lobster Soup

A hearty soup made with veal, carrots, onions, lobster, butter, flour, wine, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,555 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Lobster Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. In a large pot, combine the shin of veal, carrots, onions, pepper, salt, mace, and water. Boil for 3 to 4 hours.

  2. Break up the lobster, remove the meat from the shell, and crush the shell. Place the shell in a saucepan with enough water to cover it and let it simmer.

  3. Strain the lobster shell mixture and add it back to the soup pot.

Finish the soup

  1. Finely chop the lobster meat and add it to the soup. Boil for an additional 2 hours.

  2. If available, grate the coral from the lobster and add it to the soup for enhanced appearance.

  3. In a separate bowl, mix the butter and flour together until smooth. Stir this mixture into the soup.

  4. Add the white wine and vinegar or lemon juice to the soup and stir well.

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. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Carrot + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,029 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

Shin of veal
Gives the broth body and savory depth as it simmers for hours.
Lobster
Provides the main flavor and tender meat, with shells adding extra seafood aroma to the broth.
Butter and flour
Flour thickens the soup and butter adds richness and smooth mouthfeel.
White wine
Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the broth.
Vinegar or lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the soup.

The step that matters

Stirring the butter and flour into the soup. Flour clumps if added raw or unevenly. Mixing it smooth with butter first and stirring it in well lets it disperse and thicken the soup evenly instead of forming lumps.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, carrot, onion, pepper, lobster, butter, flour):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, carrot, onion, pepper, lobster, butter, flour. 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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