Name: Lobster in Pastry
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons finely cut cooked lobster; 2 tablespoons butter; 2 teaspoons flour; ½ cup veal or chicken stock; 1 cup cream; ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper; 2 sliced truffles; ½ teaspoon salt; 12 sliced mushrooms

Why it works: Truffle and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,900 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Lobster in Pastry

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

Heat the stock and cream together in a saucepan.
Add the mushrooms, truffles, salt, and cayenne pepper.
Stir in the flour and butter, cooking for a few minutes.
Add the lobster and mix well.

Serve

Transfer the mixture into a baked pastry shell.

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.

Truffle + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,900 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Lobster + creamtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,050 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Veal + truffletop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together815 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, 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 seafood flavor and substance of the filling.
Butter: Adds richness and fat, carrying flavor through the sauce.
Flour: Thickens the stock and cream into a smooth, cohesive sauce.
Cream: Adds richness and body, giving the sauce a smooth texture.
Stock: Forms the savory liquid base that the sauce is built on.
Mushrooms: Contribute earthy flavor and a soft, meaty texture to the filling.

The step that matters

Stir in the flour and butter, cooking for a few minutes. The flour must cook in the fat long enough to lose its raw taste and to thicken the liquid evenly. Adding it to hot liquid without stirring can leave lumps, so stir steadily while it cooks.

“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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Lobster in Pastry