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Gratin of Lobster

A baked lobster dish with parsley, anchovy essence, vinegar, cayenne, salt, béchamel, egg yolk, bread crumbs, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Gratin of Lobster

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Remove the meat from the lobster and chop it finely.

  2. Mix the lobster meat with parsley, essence of anchovy, vinegar, cayenne pepper, salt, and béchamel sauce.

  3. Boil the mixture, then add the egg yolk and let it cool.

Fill and bake

  1. Fill paper cases with the mixture.

  2. Top with bread crumbs and small pieces of butter.

  3. Brown in the oven at 400°F (200°C) and serve on a napkin.

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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Lobster + anchovytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together470 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Anchovy + eggtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,330 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster meat
Provides the main protein and the bulk of the filling.
Béchamel sauce
Binds the filling and keeps it moist and creamy.
Egg yolk
Thickens the mixture as it cooks and helps it set when cooled.
Bread crumbs
Forms a crisp top that browns in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the topping brown.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture, then add the egg yolk. Adding the yolk to a very hot mixture can scramble it, so the yolk should be stirred in carefully off the heat or at a lower temperature to keep the filling smooth and thickened.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Capersfits about as well
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Garlicfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, lobster, anchovy, vinegar, pepper, sauce, 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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