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Sauce

Lobster Sauce

A sauce made with egg yolks, lobster spawn, mustard, sweet oil, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Lobster Sauce

Why it works: Mustard and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,430 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Lobster Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, mix the egg yolks with the back of a spoon.

  2. Add the lobster spawn, mustard, sweet oil, salt, and pepper.

  3. Stir until well combined.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  2. Lobster + mustardtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together394 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  3. Lobster + peppertop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,247 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  4. Egg + lobstertop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,484 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  5. Egg + mustardtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,210 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Emulsify the oil and spawn, giving the sauce a thick, smooth, creamy body.
Lobster spawn
Provides the main lobster flavor and a rich color to the sauce.
Sweet oil
Adds fat that carries flavor and gives the sauce a smooth, silky texture.
Mustard
Adds sharpness and helps the yolks and oil stay emulsified together.

The step that matters

Adding the oil slowly while mixing. Egg yolks can only hold oil in a stable emulsion when it is added gradually; adding it all at once can make the sauce split and look greasy. The record does not say how to add the oil, so this applies only if the oil is poured in with the other ingredients.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, lobster, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachfits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, lobster, pepper. 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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