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Lobster Soup

A creamy lobster soup made with lobster meat, broth, cream, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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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 Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster

  1. Remove the meat from the lobsters and cut it into nut-sized pieces. Reserve some for forcemeat balls.

  2. Beat the soft meat and coral with a bit of butter.

  3. Gradually add the cream, flour, and nutmeg.

  4. Remove the brown juicy parts from the claws and head.

  5. Crush the shells and small claws in a mortar.

Make the broth and soup

  1. Boil the crushed shells in the broth with the crumb of the French roll for 20 minutes.

  2. Strain the broth and return it to the pot with the lobster meat, forcemeat balls, and cream mixture.

  3. Simmer gently for 10 minutes without boiling.

  4. In the tureen, add the essence of anchovy, lemon juice, cayenne, and salt if needed.

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

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  2. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

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

  3. Lobster + creamtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobsters
Provide the main meat and coral, which add flavour and body to the soup.
Thick cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the soup.
Flour
Thickens the cream mixture so it blends smoothly into the soup.
Veal or chicken broth
Forms the liquid base, extracting flavour from the crushed shells.
French roll crumb
Adds body and helps thicken the broth as it boils.
Essence of anchovy
Adds savoury depth that enriches the overall flavour.

The step that matters

Simmer gently without boiling. Boiling a cream-based soup can cause it to curdle or separate, so it should be kept at a gentle simmer once the cream is added.

“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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