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Broiled Lobster

A lobster prepared by removing the stomach, dredging the meat in flour, seasoning, coating with butter, and broiling until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Broiled Lobster

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the stomach and intestinal vein from the lobster.

  2. Split the meat of the tail and claws.

  3. Dredge the meat in flour and season with salt and pepper.

  4. Cover all the meat with butter.

Broil

  1. Broil over a hot fire until light brown, or broil in shells.

  2. If broiling in shells, divide the tail and claws into two parts.

  3. Broil on the meat side for 8 minutes and on the shell side for 10 minutes.

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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Lobster + buttertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  3. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Lobster + flourtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,034 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 meat that is cooked and browned as the main dish.
Flour
Forms a light coating on the meat that helps it brown during broiling.
Butter
Adds fat and moisture to the meat and helps it brown evenly.

The step that matters

Broil on the meat side for 8 minutes and on the shell side for 10 minutes. Lobster meat turns firm and rubbery when overcooked, while undercooked meat stays translucent and soft. Timing each side carefully keeps the meat tender and moist while the surface browns.

“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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