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Lobster a LA Newburg

A creamy lobster dish served over crackers or toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 a LA Newburg

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. In a chafing dish, heat the cream until hot.

  2. Add the butter and flour, stirring until smooth.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the lobster and bring to a boil.

  2. Stir in the beaten eggs, salt, red pepper, mustard, and Worcestershire sauce.

  3. Cook until thoroughly heated and serve over crackers or 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. Cream + lobstertop 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. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  5. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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 base of the sauce and gives it a rich, smooth body.
Flour
Thickens the cream into a smooth sauce when stirred in with the butter.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the flour blend smoothly into the sauce.
Eggs
Enrich and thicken the sauce as they heat, giving it body.
Lobster
Provides the main seafood flavor and tender texture in the dish.

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 scramble and turn grainy. Keep the heat gentle while the eggs are added and heated through.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Spinachfits about as well
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, cream, flour, lobster, egg, 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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