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Creamed Lobster

A lobster dish baked with a creamy sauce, butter, flour, milk, cream, and seasonings, topped with bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Creamed Lobster

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Melt the butter in a saucepan, then stir in the flour to make a roux, cooking until smooth.

  3. Heat the cream and milk together in a separate pot.

Make the sauce

  1. Stir the roux and seasonings into the heated milk and cream.

  2. Add the lobster meat and mix well.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered mold or scallop shells.

  2. Cover with fine bread crumbs and bake until browned.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  5. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster meat
Provides the main body and bite of the dish, becoming firm and opaque as it heats.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the sauce.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, carrying the thickened flavour through the dish.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour, and forms the base of the roux.
Flour
Thickens the sauce as its starch swells when heated in the liquid.
Fine bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned topping during baking.

The step that matters

Stirring the roux into the hot milk and cream. Flour clumps if it hits liquid unevenly. Stirring disperses the starch so it thickens the sauce smoothly as it heats, rather than leaving 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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