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Lobster Soup

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Lobster Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Pound the lobster coral in a mortar or use a few drops of liquid carmine. Add water and simmer for 45 minutes.

  2. Pound the lobster flesh to a smooth paste. Strain the stock and set aside the best vegetables.

  3. Pound the vegetables and add them to a clean saucepan with the stock. Bring to a boil.

  4. Add butter and nearly boil all the milk. Mix flour with the remaining milk and thicken the boiling milk with it.

  5. Combine the thickened milk with the soup. Stir well and strain through a fine sieve.

  6. Reheat the soup and adjust seasoning and coloring to achieve a pale pink.

  7. Keep the soup hot in a bain-marie or a tin of boiling water without boiling.

  8. For a richer soup, substitute boiling milk with 1 pint of warm single cream.

  9. Serve with small croutons brushed with warmed glaze and dipped in grated Parmesan cheese.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + parmesan cheesetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,608 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

Butter and flour 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

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