Why it works: Lobster and whiting work together. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 73 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Creamed Lobster
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the lobster
Boil the lobster in water with a little coarse sea salt for 20 minutes.
Remove the lobster and let it cool completely.
Take off the claws.
Break up the body, removing the spawn and soft meat.
Pound the lobster meat in a mortar.
Make the mixture
Mix the lobster meat with the fillets of the scraped whitings.
Add the fish stock.
Pass the mixture through a wire sieve.
In a basin, mix the lobster mixture with 1 pint of cream gradually, seasoning with white pepper, salt, and grated nutmeg.
Mould and cook
Break the firm lobster meat into 20 small pieces.
Brush small tin shells or moulds with butter.
Line the shells with the cream mixture.
Place a piece of lobster in the center of each mould.
Fill the moulds with the cream mixture.
Cover with buttered paper.
Cook in water just off the boil for 30 minutes.
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.
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Lobster + whitingtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together73 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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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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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Whiting + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together135 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,488 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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 sweet flavour that defines the dish.
- Cream
- Gives the mixture its smooth, rich body and moisture as it sets.
- Whitings
- Add fish fillets that bulk the mixture and deepen its seafood flavour.
- Fish stock
- Adds liquid and savoury fish flavour to the mixture.
- Butter
- Greases the moulds so the set creams release cleanly and add richness.
The step that matters
Cook in water just off the boil. Water at a gentle simmer heats the custard-like cream slowly, so it sets evenly and smoothly. A rolling boil would cause it to curdle, bubble and turn grainy or watery.
Swap the white pepper
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, whiting, fish, cream, nutmeg, butter):
- Capersfits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Tarragonfits better
- White pepperthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, whiting, fish, cream, nutmeg, butter. 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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