Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Lobster Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the lobster
Extract the meat from the lobster shells and set the spawn aside.
Beat the fins and small claws in a mortar.
Combine the meat, fins, claws, and water in a saucepan and simmer to extract flavor.
Strain the liquid into another pot.
Make the soup
In a mortar, beat the spawn, flour, and butter, then rub it through a sieve into the strained soup.
Simmer the soup for 10 minutes without boiling to preserve color.
Squeeze in lemon juice and add essence of anchovies.
Make and serve the forcemeat balls
For the forcemeat balls, mix minced lobster, spawn, French roll crumb, egg, and mace, then roll in flour.
Serve the forcemeat balls in the soup.
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.
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,404 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Lobsters
- Provide the meat and shells that flavor the soup base and forcemeat balls.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, carrying flavor and giving the soup a smooth mouthfeel.
- Flour
- Thickens the soup slightly when rubbed in with the spawn and butter.
- Egg
- Binds the forcemeat mixture so the balls hold their shape.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the soup.
The step that matters
Simmer without boiling. The instruction to simmer the soup for 10 minutes without boiling protects its color. Vigorous boiling can break down the pigments and dull the soup's appearance.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, flour, butter, lemon, egg):
- Capersfits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Tarragonfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, flour, butter, lemon, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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