Why it works: Lobster and mushroom work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and 178 recipes mention both. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: milk, wheat, shellfish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Make the sauce
Melt the butter in a pan.
Add the flour and mix until smooth, without browning.
Gradually stir in the milk and cook until it boils.
Add the filling and serve
Add the chopped mushrooms, salt, pepper, and lobster.
Stir until the lobster is cooked through.
Serve in cases.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Lobster + mushroomtop 13% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together178 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + mushroomtop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together12,516 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
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Butter + milktop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together81,222 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Milk + mushroomtop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together2,230 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).
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Mushroom + peppertop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together13,578 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Provides fat and flavour for the roux base of the sauce.
- Flour
- Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce when cooked with the butter.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid of the sauce, thickened by the flour as it boils.
- Mushrooms
- Add earthy flavour and moisture to the creamy filling.
- Lobster
- Supplies the main protein and sweet flavour of the filling.
The step that matters
Stir until the lobster is cooked through. Lobster turns rubbery and tough when overcooked, so it should be heated just until the flesh turns opaque and firm.
“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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