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Lobster Rolls

A puff pastry roll filled with lobster and a creamy sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Lobster Rolls

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, combine flour and milk or cream, then stir over heat until it thickens.

  2. Add butter and mix vigorously until well blended.

  3. Remove from heat and mix in egg yolks, cayenne, and essence of anchovies.

  4. Combine the lobster with the sauce.

Assemble and bake

  1. Roll out puff pastry into 4-inch squares. Place a tablespoon of lobster mixture in the center.

  2. Fold the pastry over to form a case, press edges together, and trim.

  3. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes.

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

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

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Fine flour
Thickens the milk or cream into a smooth, stable sauce that holds the lobster.
Milk or cream
Forms the liquid base of the sauce and adds moisture and richness.
Fresh butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the sauce a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the sauce, adding richness and body as it sets.
Cooked lobster
Provides the main filling, with its sweet, delicate flavour and tender texture.
Puff pastry
Forms the flaky case that puffs and browns around the filling in the oven.

The step that matters

Stirring the flour and milk until thickened. Flour must be cooked while stirring over heat so the starch swells and thickens the liquid evenly. Under-cooking leaves a raw, pasty taste and a thin sauce, while lumps form if the mixture is not stirred constantly.

“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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