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Lobster a LA Newburg

A lobster dish with butter, sherry, egg yolks, cream, and baking soda.

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 ↓

Lobster a LA Newburg

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster

  1. Remove the meat from the shells of the lobsters and cut into one-inch pieces.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter and add the lobster pieces.

  2. Season with salt and cayenne, and cook for 5 minutes.

  3. Pour in the sherry and simmer for another 5 minutes.

  4. Stir in the beaten egg yolks and cream, mixing continuously until thickened.

  5. Add the baking soda to the cream 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. 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 + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

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, delicate flavor of the dish.
Egg yolks
Thicken the cream into a smooth sauce as they set with gentle heat.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, forming the body of the sauce.
Butter
Adds fat and flavor, helping to carry the seasonings through the lobster.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aroma that balance the richness of the cream.

The step that matters

Stir in the egg yolks and cream. Egg yolks thicken when heated gently but can scramble if the heat is too high or stirring stops. Keep the heat moderate and stir constantly so the sauce becomes smooth and thick.

“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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