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Lobster Au Gratin

A baked lobster dish topped with a butter, egg yolk, white sauce, and breadcrumb mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Lobster Au Gratin

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the lobster

  1. Split the lobster in half and carefully remove the meat without breaking the shells.

  2. Break the claws and extract the meat.

  3. Mince the lobster meat and place it in a saucepan with butter.

Make the filling

  1. Add the egg yolk and white sauce, then season with salt, pepper, and cayenne.

  2. Stir over low heat for a few minutes.

  3. Fill the lobster shells with the mixture and sprinkle with bread crumbs.

Bake and serve

  1. Brush the tops with oiled butter and bake at 400°F (200°C) until brown.

  2. Serve on a folded napkin, garnished with fresh parsley.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  4. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

  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 meat that forms the body of the dish.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the lobster mixture cook gently without drying.
Egg yolk
Thickens the filling and gives it a smooth, rich set when heated.
White sauce
Adds moisture and creaminess so the filling holds together in the shells.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping that browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Stir the filling over low heat. Egg yolk thickens when heated, but too much heat can scramble it and make the filling grainy. Gentle heat keeps the mixture smooth and creamy before it goes into the shells.

Swap the parsley

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

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

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