Why it works: Lobster and anchovy work together. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 470 recipes. Both carry octanal, which smells fat, soap. The science ↓
Lobster Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the lobster
Remove the spawn and red coral from the lobster and pound them into a paste with the butter.
Cut the lobster meat from the back and claws into small squares or shred it with two forks.
Make the sauce
Melt the butter in a saucepan until boiling hot.
Stir the lobster meat into the melted butter and heat gently, stirring occasionally, until the lobster is hot throughout.
Do not let the sauce boil to maintain the bright red color.
Add optional flavors like cayenne, anchovy, catsup, lemon juice, or a spoonful of cream if desired.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Lobster + anchovytop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together470 recipes
Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
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Lobster + creamtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,050 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,697 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Anchovy + creamtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together798 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 spawn and coral
- Gives the sauce its rich flavor and bright red color.
- Lobster meat
- Provides the main body and texture of the sauce.
- Butter
- Adds richness and carries the flavor of the lobster through the sauce.
The step that matters
Do not let the sauce boil. Boiling can dull the bright red color of the lobster and toughen its delicate meat. Heating gently keeps the color vivid and the lobster tender.
“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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