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Dessert

Petits Souffles De Homard

A lobster soufflé made with mayonnaise sauce, tomato sauce, aspic jelly, and herbs, baked in paper-lined ramekins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and chervil match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 824 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Petits Souffles De Homard

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the lobster meat into neat pieces.

  2. Prepare ramekin cases with bands of writing paper about 3 inches above the case.

Make and set the mixture

  1. In a basin, whisk together the mayonnaise sauce, tomato sauce, and aspic jelly until it looks white.

  2. Stir in the lobster pieces, tarragon, and chervil.

  3. Fill the ramekin cases with the mixture.

  4. Once set, carefully remove the paper bands.

Garnish and serve

  1. Garnish with coral sprinkled on top and serve.

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. Tarragon + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together824 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Tomato + tarragontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together391 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Tomato + cherviltop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together152 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Lobster + cherviltop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together52 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster
Provides the main flesh and flavour of the dish.
Mayonnaise sauce
Adds richness and fat, giving the mixture a smooth, creamy body.
Aspic jelly
Gelatin-based setting agent that firms the mixture so it holds its shape.
Tomato sauce
Contributes acidity and colour to the mixture.

The step that matters

Remove the paper bands only once set. The mixture must be fully set before the paper is removed; removing it early can cause the soufflé to slump, since the gelled aspic is what holds the shape.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, sauce, tarragon, chervil):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, sauce, tarragon, chervil. 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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