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Homard Saute a L'americaine — Lobster Sauted

A lobster sauté with a sauce of butter, vegetables, wine, tomato and velouté, finished with cream, paprika, Parmesan, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Lobster and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,095 recipes mention both. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

The recipe

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Contains: milk, shellfish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the sauce

  1. Fry the lobster shells in butter with carrot, onions, thyme, and bay leaves until the vegetables begin to brown.

  2. Add the lobster pulp and stir continuously for 5 minutes.

  3. Moisten with white wine and cook for 5 more minutes.

  4. Add tomato sauce and veloute sauce; cook together for 15 minutes.

  5. Rub the mixture through a fine sieve into a clean saucepan.

  6. Reduce with cream until the sauce reaches a good consistency; season with salt and paprika.

Fill and bake

  1. Remove the meat from the halved lobsters and slice it into pieces the size of a quarter.

  2. Fill the lobster shells with some sauce, then arrange the lobster meat on top with alternate slices of mushrooms and truffles.

  3. Cover with sauce, sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese and melted butter.

  4. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 12 to 15 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve on a napkin.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Lobster + saucetop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Carrot + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Thyme + tomatotop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Carrot + tomatotop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,597 recipes

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

  5. Butter + white winetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,039 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster shells
Frying them in butter releases flavour compounds that give the sauce its characteristic lobster taste.
Butter
Carries the aromatics and enriches the sauce, adding fat and a rounded, silky mouthfeel.
Tomato sauce
Adds acidity and body, forming the reddish base of the sauce.
Veloute sauce
Provides a thickened stock-and-roux base that gives the sauce body and smoothness.
Cream
Adds richness and smooths the sauce, rounding its flavour and texture when reduced.
Parmesan cheese
Melts and browns on top in the oven, forming a golden, savoury crust.

The step that matters

Rub the mixture through a fine sieve and reduce with cream. Straining removes the shell and vegetable solids so the sauce is smooth, and reducing it concentrates flavour and thickens it to the right consistency before it is spooned over the lobster.

Flavor stand-ins for the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, butter, onion, thyme, white wine, tomato, sauce):

  1. Potatobetter flavor fit
  2. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  3. Carrotthe original
  4. Shallotabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, butter, onion, thyme, white wine, tomato, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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