Why it works: Nutmeg and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
To Pot Lobsters
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the lobster
Half boil the lobsters.
Remove the meat and cut it into small pieces.
Season the meat with mace, white pepper, nutmeg, and salt.
Layer and bake
Press the mixture into a pot.
Cover the mixture with butter.
Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for half an hour.
When cool, place the lobster back into the pots with a little butter.
Beat the remaining butter with some of the lobster spawn.
Mix the mixture to cover the pots.
Strain the mixture and add cayenne if desired.
Lay a little butter at the bottom of a pan.
Smooth the lobster over the butter.
Add bay leaves.
Cover with butter.
Bake gently.
Once done, pour the contents onto a sieve.
Arrange the pieces in potting pots with seasoning.
Finish and set
When cold, pour clarified butter over the lobster.
Do not use hot butter.
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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Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,686 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
-
Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,557 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
-
Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
-
Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,400 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
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Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together13,015 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Lobsters
- Provides the main body of meat that is seasoned, baked and set in butter.
- Butter
- Seals the lobster from air and adds richness and moisture as it cools.
- Mace
- Adds a warm, aromatic spice flavour to the lobster meat.
- Nutmeg
- Adds a warm, aromatic spice flavour that complements the lobster.
The step that matters
Pour the clarified butter when cold, not hot. Hot butter can cook the surface of the cooled lobster and make the seal greasy or uneven, so the butter should be poured once the lobster is cold.
Swap the white pepper
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, mace, nutmeg, clove, butter, pepper):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Allspicefits better
- Parsleyfits better
- White pepperthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, mace, nutmeg, clove, butter, pepper. 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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