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Lobster Stew

A lobster stew made with butter, cream sauce, Worcestershire sauce, curry powder, salt, pepper, served on buttered toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Lobster and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,095 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Lobster Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stew

  1. In a pan, melt the butter over low heat.

  2. Add the lobster squares and cook slowly until tender.

  3. Stir in the cream sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and curry powder.

  4. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve

  1. Serve the stew on slices of thin, crisp, buttered toast.

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. Lobster + saucetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Lobster + creamtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Lobster
Provides the main protein and tender, sweet meat that forms the body of the stew.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavor and gives the stew a smooth mouthfeel.
Cream sauce
Supplies liquid and creaminess that binds the stew into a rich, smooth base.
Worcestershire sauce
Adds savory, tangy depth that rounds out the flavor of the stew.
Curry powder
Contributes warm, aromatic spice notes that season the stew.

The step that matters

Cook the lobster slowly over low heat until tender. High heat toughens lobster protein quickly, making it rubbery. Gentle, low heat cooks the meat evenly and keeps it moist and tender.

“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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