Skip to main content
Main

Boiled Lobsters

A simple dish of lobsters boiled in a seasoned broth of wine, water, salt, pepper, and bay leaves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: White wine and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,433 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Boiled Lobsters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash lobsters thoroughly in several changes of water until clean.

Cook

  1. In a pot, combine white wine, water, salt, pepper, and bay leaves.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Add the lobsters and cook until they are bright red and cooked through.

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. White wine + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,433 recipes

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

  2. Lobster + white winetop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together180 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  3. Lobster + peppertop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,247 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobsters
Provide the main protein, which turns bright red and firms as it cooks through.
White wine
Adds acidity and aromatic flavor to the cooking liquid.

The step that matters

Add the lobsters and cook until cooked through. Lobster meat turns firm and opaque quickly, and overcooking makes it tough and rubbery. Watching the color and doneness closely prevents this.

“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.

You might also like

Lobster SauceLobster Sauce174 recipesLobster CroquettesLobster Croquettes99 recipesLobster BallsLobster Balls7 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipes