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 a LA Newburg
Ingredients
Directions
Heat the cream in a chafing dish.
Add the butter and flour, stirring until smooth.
Add the lobster and bring to a boil.
Stir in the beaten eggs and season with salt, pepper, mustard, and Worcestershire sauce.
Cook until thoroughly done and serve over crackers or toast.
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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Lobster + saucetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,095 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Cream + lobstertop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,050 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,430 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,787 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cream
- Forms the body of the sauce and carries the other ingredients.
- Eggs
- Thicken the sauce gently when heated and add richness.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, and helps build a smooth base with the flour.
- Flour
- Thickens the cream into a smooth sauce as it is stirred in with the butter.
- Lobster
- Provides the main seafood flavor and texture of the sauce.
The step that matters
Stir in the beaten eggs. Eggs thicken when heated, but if the sauce gets too hot or boils hard after they go in, they can curdle and turn grainy. Adding them off direct high heat and stirring constantly keeps the sauce smooth.
Swap the mustard
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, egg, butter, lobster, flour, pepper, sauce):
- Spinachfits about as well
- Shallotfits about as well
- Chivefits about as well
- Mustardthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cream, egg, butter, lobster, flour, pepper, sauce. 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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