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Stewed Lobster

A lobster stew made with lobster meat, white stock, mace, cayenne pepper, sea salt, flour, butter, and 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

Prepare

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

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

Stew and serve

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

  2. Once done, add 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 the rich, sweet flavour of the stew.
White stock
Supplies the liquid that cooks the lobster and forms the body of the stew.
Flour
Thickens the stock into a smooth, lightly bodied sauce as it stews.
Butter
Adds fat for a rounded, silky mouthfeel and carries flavour through the stew.
Vinegar or white wine
Adds a touch of acidity added at the end that brightens the rich stew.

The step that matters

Stirring while the stew cooks. Flour mixed into hot liquid can clump and scorch on the bottom of the pan. Stirring frequently keeps the flour dispersed so the sauce thickens smoothly and evenly.

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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