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Lobster a LA Newburg

A lobster dish cooked in milk, sherry, and egg, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and sherry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,479 recipes. Both carry 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine, which smells cocoa, roasted. The science ↓

Lobster a LA Newburg

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. In a large pot, bring the milk to a boil.

  2. Add salt and pepper to taste.

  3. Dissolve the cornstarch in a little milk and stir it into the boiling milk.

  4. Add the sherry wine and the beaten egg, stirring well.

Add the lobster

  1. Add the lobster and cook for three 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 + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,479 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  2. Pepper + sherrytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Pepper + winetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,066 recipes

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

  5. Milk + winetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (fenugreek, curry).

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

What each ingredient does

Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce and carries the other flavors.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce when heated.
Egg
Adds richness and helps thicken the sauce as its proteins set.
Sherry wine
Adds aroma and a mild acidity that balances the rich cream sauce.
Lobster
Provides the main protein, cooked gently in the sauce until just done.

The step that matters

Adding the beaten egg. Egg proteins set at high heat and can curdle into lumps if left unstirred in boiling milk. Stirring well disperses the egg evenly so it thickens the sauce smoothly.

“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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